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62d Congress [ SENATE \ Document 

2d Session ) ] No. 722 



EQUAL SUFFRAGE m COLORADO 



SPEECH OF ^ ' 

HON. EDWARD T. TAYLOE ( 

OF COLORADO 



DELIVERED IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
WEDNESDAY, APRIL 24, 1912, IN CONSIDERATION OF 
BILL (H. R. 38) TO CONFER LEGISLATIVE AUTHOR- 
ITY ON THE TERRITORY OF ALASKA :: :: :: :: 




PRESENTED BY. MR. SUTHERLAND 

May 27, 1912. — Ordered to be printed 



WASHINGTON 

GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFEIOE 

1912 



J 



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■^ EQUAL SUFFRAGE IN COLORADO. 

By Mr. Taylor of Colorado. 



^Ir. Chairman, I would not be performing my full duty to the 
State of Colorado, or to her 135,000 women voters whom I am 
supremely proud to represent, if I permitted this occasion to pass 
without expressing their sentiments upon the pending amendment 
to this bill. This amendment simply grants to the people of Alaska 
the authority to extend to the women of that Territory the right of 
equal suffrage. While I would prefer to have a provision in this 
bill expressly granting the elective franchise to the women and 
thereby making the grant come directly from Congress itself instead 
of waiting upon the legislature of Alaska to determine the question, 
nevertheless, I beheve in local self-government, and there is not 
the shghtest doubt in my mind but that the hardy pioneers of the 
Northwest — the splendid American citizens who are reclaiming that 
wilderness and making it one of the richest portions of the globe — 
will be fair enough and broad minded and chivalrous enough to 
pass a law at the first session of their legislature granting to the 
women of that Territory the rights of American citizenship. 

This amendment will give the Alaskans the opportunity, of which 
Congress is now faihng to take advantage, of directly extending 
this act of enlightened twentieth-century square dealing to the 
women who are enduring the hardships and privations incident to 
pioneer hfe in that country. I regret exceedingly that I am not 
the author of this amendment. I intended to and would have 
been dehghted to offer this amendment myself as a greeting to the 
good women of Alaska; but my attention was diverted for only 
a moment, and my exceptionally efficient and ever alert friend 
from Wyoming [Mr. Mondell] got ahead of me. However, I am 
proud of the fact that this amendment is presented by the Repre- 
sentative of the original equal-suffrage State, and I congratulate 
this House and the people of Alaska upon the passage of this bill 
granting to them a Territorial form of government, and specifically 
authorizing them to permit the women to join with the men in elect- 
ing the officials and making the laws that will shape the destiny of 
that rich and splendid Territory. [Applause.] 

EQUAL SUFFRAGE IN COLORADO. 

Mr. Chairman, I am going to avail myself of this opportunity 
to do an act of simple justice to the women of my State and at the 
same time extend a favor to the millions of good women of this 
country and render a service to this Nation. 

3 



4 EQUAL SUFFEAGE IN COLORADO. 

I want to recite in a plain conversational way some of my per- 
sonal experiences and individual observations extending over a 
period of 30 years of public life in Colorado, during nearly 19 years 
of which time we have had equal suffrage in our State. I may say 
at the outset that I am not going to enter into a joint debate, for 
three reasons: First, because 1 have not the time; secondly, because 
every man who lives in an equal-suffrage State will agree with sub- 
stantially everything I say — there is only one side to it, and nothing 
to argue with any man who personally knows the practical opera- 
tions of woman suffrage; and, thirdly, because men who have never 
lived in a woman-suffrage State and have no personal experience or 
actual knowledge on the subject necessarily form their opinions largely 
upon prejudice and the rest upon hearsay, and there is little use of 
arguing the question or disputing with a man who does not indi- 
vidually know what he is talking about. 

I am always glad, indeed, to tell people who want to learn or 
discuss the subject with anyone who is willing to form an opinion 
from existing facts. But it is an utter waste of time and energy to 
argue with people who resolutely shut their eyes to present-day con- 
ditions and whose opinions are based wholly upon the ideas of former 
generations. 

The mountain regions of the earth have ever been the birthplace 
of liberty and the home of freedom. I have from my boyhood days 
lived in the Centennial State, where we recognize our mothers and 
wives and our sisters and daughters as American citizens and treat 
them as our equals, where the men of our mountain homes have added 
justice to chivalry and have long since learned and have the candor 
and manhood to acknowledge that our women's influence in the civic 
housekeeping of our cities, our counties, and the State itself is as 
beneficial and necessary as it is in every well-regulated home. 

When I came to Congress I never realized, and I have not yet been 
able to fully understand, the deep-seated prejudice, bias, and even 
vindictiveness against, and the astounding amount of misinformation 
there is everywhere back here in the East concerning the practical 
operation of equal suffrage. I have been equally amazed and indig- 
nant at the many brazen assertions that I have seen in the papers 
and heard, that are perfectly absurd and without the slightest founda- 
tion in fact; and I have had many heated discussions on the subject 
during the past three years. But when I hear men and women who 
have never spent a week, and most of them not an hour, in an equal- 
suffrage State, attempt to discuss the subject from the standpoint 
of their own preconceived prejudices and idle impressions, I feel like 
saying, ''May the Lord forgive them, for they know not what they 
say." Let me say to them and to my colleagues in the House that 
it will not be 10 years before the women of this country, from the 
Pacific to the Atlantic, will be given the just and equal rights of 
American citizenship. 

It is an old and true saying that an ounce of fact is worth a ton of 
theory, and it is equally true that the simple statement of one actual 
result of woman suffrage is worth more than all the dilettante, 
theoretical, antisuffrage speeches since the dawn of history. 

vSince coining to Congress I have been frequently asked by friends 
what we think of woman suffrage in Colorado and if the women 
actually vote and if we are satisfied with it and how it works. And 




EQUAL SUFFRAGE IN COLORADO. 5 

when I tell them that it is an unqualified success and that I doubt 
if even 5 per cent of the people of the State would to-day vote to 
repeal it they ask me what it has accomplished, what the specific 
benefits are and what difference it makes, and many other questions 
concerning the practical operation and results of equal suffrage in our 
State. 

I will first take up one of the most beneficial results that could ever 
come to any State and at the same time one that is so conclusive that 
it is indisputable. I believe that it is generally conceded by enlight- 
ened people that the laws of a State are a true index of its degree of 
civilization. I will, therefore, commence by giving a brief catalogue 
of some of the legislative measures that have been either introduced 
by the women or at the request of the various women's organizations 
and enacted into law as a direct result of the work of Colorado's most 
representative women citizens during the past 18 years since their 
enfranchisement. 

The first general election after the adoption of equal suffrage in 
November, 1893, was in the fall of 1894, and the legislature elected 
at that time convened in January, 1895. I will take up seriatim each 
session of our legislature since, and very briefly mention only what 
appears to me the more important of the 150 laws enacted primarily 
through the influence of women in Colorado from 1895 to 1912, 
inclusive : 

SESSION LAWS OF 1895. 

The first women's bill introduced. Senate bill 1, was an act estab- 
lishing a State home for dependent and neglected children. 

Nearly the first bill in the house was Mrs. Holly's bill raising the 
age of consent to 18 years, the best law in the United States to-day 
for the protection of girls. 

The next was an act making married women the joint guardian of 
their own children with equal powers and duties. 

Then followed acts — 

Providmg for placing of children out in good homes. 

Protection of the property of infants and insane persons. 

Prohibiting importation or sale of adulterated liquors. 

Important amendments to school law for the deaf and blind. 

Important amendments regulating practice of pharmacy and sale 
of harmful drugs and medicines. 

Requiring record to be kept of all county poor. 

Regulating examinations and grades of certificates of school- 
teachers. 

Regulating the handling of the funds belonging to the State uni- 
versity. 

Regulating the issuance of liquor licenses. — 

Providing for the ^^Keeley cure" at county expense for habitual 
drunkards. 

Preventing the display of anarchistic flags. 

Providing penalty for officers violating their oath of office or neglect- 
ing their official duties. 

There were three women members elected to this house. They 
were the first, and they, as well as all their successors, have served 
with credit to themselves and to the women of the State. 



6 EQUAL SUFFRAGE IN COLORADO. 

,.^ SESSION LAWS OF 1897. ' 

An act establishing a State industrial school for girls. 

Important amendments to school laws. 

Liberal appropriations for industrial school for boys. 

Regulating the practice of dentistry. 

Prohibiting the sale of cocaine. 

Abolishing capital punishment. (Capital punishment was four 
years afterwards restored, but only allowed in a very few extreme 
cases.) 

There were three women members of the house during that eleventh 
session of the general assembly. There has never yet been a woman 
elected to the State senate. 

_^' SESSION LAWS OF 1899. 

A splendid indeterminate-sentence and parole law. 

Compulsory-education law for all children between 8 and 14 years. 

Kindergartens are provided for in the schools. 

Creation of county high schools. 

Creation of library commission. 

Board of lunacy commissioners established to supervise asylums 
and inmates. 

Making the white and lavender columbine the official State flower. 
! An exemption law, exempting sewing machines, bicycles, and other 
\ articles of poor people from attachments or execution. 
^ A good mechanic's lien law, protecting rights of laborers. 

There were three women in the house during that session. 

SESSION LAWS OF 1901. 

A law for the care of the feeble-minded. 

Colorado Humane Society constituted a State bureau of child and 
animal protection, to prevent wrongs to children and animals. (This 
I law has been followed in many States.) 

School-teachers are required once a week to give a lesson in the 
humane treatment of animals. 

Prohibiting desecration of the flag in the way of advertisements or 
otherwise. 

Mrs. Heartz was the only woman member in the house that session. 

SESSION LAWS OF 1903. 

An act making father and mother the joint and equal heirs of 
f their children. The best and nearly the first law of that kind in the 
! United States. 

i An act protecting the household goods and the homestead and 
requiring the signatures of both husband and wife to either mortgage 
or sale. 

Providing severe penalty for parents or anyone else for causing or 
contributing to the delinquency of children. 
\ Making Lincoln's birthday a legal holiday — one of the first States 
' to do so. 



EQUAL STJPFEAGE IN COLORADO. 7 

Making wages a preferred claim in case of suspension of business 
or receivership. ; 

Regulating the sale of convict-made goods. j 

Exempting from garnishment or attachment 60 per cent of the 1 
wages due at any time to the head of a family. 

Prohibiting the employment of any child 16 years of age or less in 
any unhealthy or dangerous occupation. 

Prohibiting furnishing to a child under 16 any tobacco or cigarettes. 

Act prescribing and regulating hours of employment of women and 
children and preventing any girl or woman over 15 years of age from 
working more than eight hours a day in any position requiring her 
to stand or be on her feet. Every employer of females is compelled ; 
by law to provide suitable seats and permit employees to use them . \ 
whenever they are not necessarily engaged in active duties. I 

Family-maintenance act, compelling a man to support his wife and f/\ 
children; also compelling children, if able to do so, to support their 
destitute and infirm parents. 

Authorizing the joining of school districts and the creation of union 
high schools. | 

An elaborate codification of the law of wills and estates, making 
an up-to-date, complete, and exemplary probate law. A married 
woman can make a will and handle her property the same as her 
husband. Her property rights are fully protected. j 

Providing for free traveling libraries — 160 of them. ^_^/ 

Mrs. Ruble was the only woman member of the house that session. 

SESSION LAWS OF 1905. 

An act amending laws and providing punishment for persons respon- 
sible for dependent neglected children. 

Prohibiting the fighting of dumb animals or the injury of them in 
any kind of sports. 

Preventing sale or use of dangerous explosives and regulating use 
of fireworks. 

An eight-hour law for miners in imderground mines and smelters. 

Creation of State board of nurse examiners for registering and 
regulating the practice of nursing. 

Law against blacklisting and boycotting. 

Providing for the State Historical and Natural History Society to \ 
secure collections, especially of the cliff dwellers. -^ 

There was no woman elected to that fifteenth session of our gen- 
eral assembly. 

SESSION LAWS OF 1907. 

A splendid pure food and drug law. A former member of the , 
legislature, and a noble woman, Mrs. Martha A. B. Canine, now 
deceased, is primarily entitled to the credit for the enactment of that 
law. 

Requiring State board of charities and corrections to care for indi- 
gent aliens. 

Creation of State commission on prison labor. 

Severe law against all kinds of cheats, swindlers, deceptions, frauds, 
and bunkoing of the public. 



8 EQUAL SUFFRAGE IN COLORADO. 

Providing for the registration of births and deaths and vital sta- 
tistics. 

Prohibiting the insurance of children under 15 years of age, under 
penalty of fine, imprisonment, and forfeiture of license to do business. 

There is no other place in the world that has that law. 

A splendid civil-service law. (Very complete.) 

An exceptionally good divorce law, containing many provisions for 
the protection of women and children in their personal and property 
rights, and authorizing poor women to prosecute without cost, and 
compelling the husband to provide for care of children and pay 
alimony and counsel fees for wife during pendency of suit. 

Establishment of free employment offices in cities. 

Common carriers' liability act. 

Coal-mine inspection law. 

Providing for suitable burial places in every city and town for all 
veterans of the Civil and Spanish Wars. 

Establishment of a State banner. 

Providing for care and protection of abandoned animals. 

Prohibiting the wearing of unauthorized emblems, badges, or 
medals. 

Establishment of juvenile courts. (A very elaborate law that has 
been copied in many other States and commended by the President 
of the United States and followed in foreign countries.) 

A revision and reenactment of a complete law upon the subject of 
rape and indecent relations 

Providing for care and education of dependent and neglected 
children. 

Establishing detention houses and parental or truant schools for 
juvenile delinquents and providing for their care and education. 

Preventing hazing. 

Making August 1 Colorado Day, in commemoration of the admis- 
sion of the State into the Union. 

A local-option law providing for the creation of ''antisaloon terri- 
tory," under which some 50 cities and towns and 12 counties and 
the principal residence portions of large cities have abolished saloons. 

Act providing for employment of prisoners eight hours a day and 
payment to wives or minor children of from 50 cents to $1 a day, if 
wife or children would otherwise become a public charge. 

Providing for the construction of public highways by convict labor, 
with eight hours a day work and '^ good-time" allowance. 

Act defining who is the head of the family. 

A modern inheritance-tax law. 

Important amendments of count}^ high-school law. 

Amendments of State board nurse examiners' law, j)roviding for 
registration and qualifications of the occupation of nursing. 

Amendments to State industrial school for girls. 

Prohibiting quack doctors from advertising. 

Requiring signature of wife to make valid assignment of wages, 
either due or future unearned wages. 

Regulating wage brokers and loan sliarks and prohibiting loans to 
minors. 

Im})ortant amendment to laws of wills and estates, providing for 
economical administration of small estate and fixing widows and 
ori)hans' allowances. 



EQUAL SUFFRAGE IN COLORADO. 9 

Establishment of industrial workshops for the blind. 

There were no women members of that sixteenth general assembly, 
but the legislative committees of the women's clubs throughout the 
State were there early and often, and with the votes of the women of 
the State behind them they largely got what they asked for. 

SESSION LAWS OF 1909. 

An act creating a bureau of labor statistics. 

Establishing a State home and training school for mental defectives. 

Establishing a State board of immigration. 

Creating the Colorado State Museum and appropriating $100,000 
therefor. 

Further protecting delinquent children and punishment for persons 
responsible, and defining duties of courts. (Mrs. Lafferty.) 

A school-teachers' pension bill. 

Authorizing State board of examiners to act in conjunction with 
State board of education to examine applicants for State diplomas. 

Creation of department of factory inspection, requiring three 
inspectors, one of whom must be a woman, with full authority to 
compel installation of safety appliances, and for proper ventilation 
and fire escapes, and sanitary appliances generally. 

Validating the wills of married women. 

Licensing and regulating hospitals and dispensaries of all kinds. 

Preventing oppression of persons held in custody and making it 
felony to resort to ^Hhird-degree'' or ''sweat-box'' methods. 

Providing ''good-time" allowance for trusty prisoners. 

Making it a felony to hve on the earnings of a lewd woman. 

Providing for physical examination at public expense of all school 
children as to eyes, ears, teeth, nose, throat, breathing capacity, and 
general health condition. Mrs. Alma V. Lafferty, the only woman 
member of this legislature, and a woman physician, Dr. Mary E. 
Bates, are principally entitled to the credit of this splendid law. 

Appropriation of $5,000 for purchase and free distribution of 
antitoxin. 

Authorizing consolidation of school districts for better schools; 
requiring school boards to furnish free transportation to pupils. 

Additional stringent regulation of wage brokers and loans to 
laborers. 

Giving a paroled convict money and clothing, the same as a dis- 
charged man. 

Making additional provisions for road building by convicts. 

Donating some State lands for certain charitable and philanthropic 
institutions. 

Defining "taxpayer" and preventing frauds in franchise elections. 

SESSION LAWS OF 1910 (EXTRA SESSION). 

Adoption of constitutional amendment providing for the initiative 
and referendum. 

Adoption of the direct primary election law. The passage of these 
two bills was the consummation of a persistent fight that has been 
carried on in the State for this reform for 20 vears. 



10 EQUAL SUFFRAGE IN COLORADO. 

The constitutional amendment was adopted by overwhelming vote 
at general election in fall of 1910 and is now in active operation. 

SESSION LAWS OF 1911. 

A codification of and complete law for the adoption of children. 

Authorizing the placing of poor orphan children in charitable educa- 
tional institutions and binding them out under proper supervision. 

Child-labor law. The most wise and complete law in this country, 
fully regulating employment of and protection of children and pre- 
scribing hours and character of work they may do. Mrs. Louise U. 
Jones, a member of the house, introduced this bill, and she and Mrs. 
Harriet G. R. Wright, a former member, are entitled to great credit 
for securing its passage. 

Creating truancy and probation officers and defining duties. 

Act providing that all laws concerning delinquency shall, for 
the protection of girls, be held to include all girls under 18 years. 

Anticoercion act, making it a misdemeanor for any employer to 
try to compel employees to resign or refrain from joining any organi- 
zation or society. 

Creating the department of factory inspection, greatly extending 
powers and benefits for protection of all workmen, male and female. 

Amendment to "head-of-family" law, designating the wife as head 
of family if she "provided chief support for family." 

Authorizing the wife, without knowledge or consent of husband, 
to go and make entry on record homesteading the property where 
they live, so it can not be sold or encumbered without her consent. 

Additional employers' liability law. 

Miners' eight-hour law providing hours of labor and defining vari- 
ous kinds of occupations as injurious to health. 

Providing that in labor disputes it shall be unlawful to issue false 
advertising to engage workmen under false statements to come in 
to take the place of workmen on strikes. 

Providing for supiervision of lying-in hospitals and maternity homes 
and to prevent improper disposition of children. 

Providing for teaching the adult blind. 

Further regulations compelling a man to support his wife and chil- 
dren; making nonsupport an extraditable olTense. 

Drastic antiwhite-slave law, one to five years in penitentiary. 

Providing for '^good-time" allowance for prisoners in county jails. 

Creating the oflice of State forester. 

Authorizing all cities to acquire and maintain public parks outside 
of city limits. (Mrs. Larerty.) 

A law exempting growing timber from taxes, unless of commercial 
value. 

Act establishing teachers' summer normal schools throughout the 
State. 

Further regulating manner of holding school elections and pre- 
venting frauds. (Mrs. Kerwin.) 

We think our schools are the best in the world, considering our 
Slate's resources and income; our appi'opriations to the schools are 
lavish compared with older and richer States. 

Act raising the qualifications of school-teachers. 



EQUAL SUFFRAGE IN COLOBADO. ll 

The first State law in the United States admitting to the State 
soldiers and sailors' homes Confederate soldiers and sailors who are 
residents of Colorado. 

Act creating and designing a State flag. 

In this session, which was our last, and is the present eighteenth 
genera] assembly, there are four women — Mrs. Alma V. LafTerty^ 
Mrs. Louise U. Jones, Mrs. Louise M. Kerwin, and Mrs. Agnes L. 
Riddle; the first is the chairman of the committee on education. 

In addition to the above laws, there are many others not specifi- 
cally mentioned, and there are a great many beneficial provisions in 
those laws that I can not take the time or space to give in detail. In 
reality, it would require fully one- third of the last 10 volumes of our 
•Colorado session laws to fully describe the laws that have been enacted 
as a direct result of the influence and energy of the women of the . >i 
Starte" generally and the splendid and indefatigable efforts of the 7" 
various women's organizations, especially the legislative committee / 
of the Colorado Federation of Women's Clubs and the same com- 
mittee of the Women's Club of Denver. Anyone can check up or \ 
verify my reference to these laws by examining the Colorado statutes 
or session laws in any large library. -^ 

I might mention many other general provisions like the establish- ^ 
ment of a county visiting board in each county, composed of three ) 
men and three women, to examine all county institutions and super- / 
vise their sanitary and other conditions ; requiring a woman physician / 
in the insane asylum; requiring inspection of private eleemosynary / 
institutions by a State board. ^ 

The women's influence makes it much easier to secure liberal \ \ 1 
appropriations for educational and humanitarian purposes. I I \ 

Most of the visiting boards of the various institutions where people 
are involuntarily confined are composed partially of women, and 
they make those boards very efhcient and prevent them from becom- 
ing political boards. 

Women have been largely instrumental in bringing about the 
adoption of the commission form of government in Colorado Springs, / 
Grand Junction, and other cities, and in requiring hundreds of splen- 
did ordinances to be adopted by the various cities and towns, and / 
especially in compelling the enforcement of humane laws, sanitation,, 
and general decency. 

Women always take an active interest in the enactment and strict 
enforcement of good public-health laws, and laws for the moral wel- 
fare of society. Whenever they have a chance to express their senti- 
ments there is never any doubt as to the result. Every politician 
knows in advance what it will be, and that is the reason some of 
them loudly proclaim that woman suffrage is a failure. Equal suf- 
frage is a failure with some kinds of people. A married woman's 
heart is always in her children and her home — the foundation of the 
Republic — and any measure affecting either is not a political question 
with her for a minute. There is only one side to it, and that is the 
right side. A woman's vote is always a patriotic vote. 

In fact, the most' wise,'' screhtTfic, and progressive laws of any State 
in the Union for the care and protection of children and women in 
their personal and property rights, for the humane treatment of the 
delinquent, dependent, and unfortunate classes, and for the enforce 



12 EQUAL SUFFRAGE IN COLORADO. 

ment of the laws and betterment of society are on the statute books 
of Colorado to-day. 

I do not clahii that the women are entitled to all of the credit for 
the enactment of all of these 150 laws. But the mothers and daugh- 
ters of Colorado have, in my judgment, been the controlling influence 
that has brought about the enactment of most and have greatly 
assisted toward all of them. In fact, they have indirectly assisted 
in the passage of a great many other good laws, and those 150 are 
150 good reasons for the women having had a voice in their enact- 
ment. I have simply mentioned those, as I recollect it, that the 
women took the most active interest in and for the passage of which 
I think they are entitled to the main credit. The women are also 
entitled to the credit of bringing forward, through their various clubs 
and organizations, many other beneficial measures at every session 
of the legislature, but many of which have thus far failed to pass. 
They will, however, not stop until they pass them. It should be 
remembered that we in Colorado have all of the powerful influences 
that always work against all reform legislation that they have in all 
other States, and no reasonable person expects the women to be able 
to overcome all of those influences and accomplish ever3'thing in 18 
years. 

There may be some minor inaccuracies in reference to these laws, 
88 I have been compelled to prepare this list rather hastily. I have 
relied upon my own judgment and personal recollection in making 
these selections. Possibly no two persons would select the same list, 
and the titles used are partially abbreviations of my own. But I was 
a member of the Colorado State Senate during 6 of those 10 sessions 
of our legislature, besides 3 extra sessions, and was president pro 
tempore of the senate one term; I was a member of the judiciary 
committee for 12 3^ears and chairman of the committee for 4 years, 
and personally helped to pass two-thirds of those laws, and besides 
twice as many more, so that I ought to be as well qualified as any 
man in the State to speak on the subject of the women's moral, 
intellectual, and political influence in causing good legislation; and 
I candidly believe that I am not putting it too strong or giving them 
more than their just due when I say that they are fairly entitled to 
much more commendation than the men for placing on our statute 
books the greatest number of the most humane and advanced laws 
that have been enacted b}^ any State in this Union during the past 
20 years. 

I have made some examination of the laws of other States, and I 
challenge the entire array of antisuffragists in this country to com- 
pare the lawmaking record of Colorado with any male-suftrage State ; 
and I defiantly assert, without the slightest fear of successful con- 
tradiction, that unless it be an equal-suftrage State, there is not 
another State in this Union that has during llie past 10 sessions of 
her general assembly enacted one-half as much beneficial legislation 
for the protection and moral uplift of the human race. 

The splendid record that the women of Colorado have made during 
the past 18 years is a credit to themselves, an honor to womanhood, 
and an inspiration to the cause of good government throughout the 
civilized world. 

It is the feminine interest in motherhood, in the cliild, and in the 
welfare of the home that has compelled the passage of these laws. 



EQUAL SUFFRAGE IN COLORADO. 13 

Any 1 of 50 of those laws would be a vindication of equal suffrage. 
Moreover, the Colorado women are entitled to very great credit 
which does not appear anywhere for the vigilant exertion of their 
influence toward the prevention of bad legislation. A very large 
number of bad or unnecessary bills have been killed by the votes 
and suffrage influence of women, and the introduction of many more 
have been prevented by reason of the fear of that same influence. 

The women members have all been exceptionally conscientious, 
industrious, and capable legislators. They devote their energies 
mostly to moral questions and matters affecting the home and the 
children, and the betterment of health and social conditions, includ- > 
ing humane measures for the unfortunate of all classes. . >^ 

The delegates of the Inter-Parliamentary Union, who some time 
ago visited the different parts of the United States for the purpose 
of studying American institutions, declared concerning our group of 
laws relating to child life in its various aspects of education, home, 
and labor, that 'Hhey are the sanest, most humane, most progressive, 
most scientific laws relating to the child to be found on any statute 
books in the world. ^' 

Woman suffrage in Colorado is and has been an unqualified benefit 
and universally recognized success. There is no thought or suggestion 
of its abandonment, the only possible difference of opinion among 
our citizens on the subject being as to the extent to which it has 
influenced legislation and the general administration of our public 
affairs. In the protection of the home and the family relations, of 
childhood and womanhood, in the guardianship of individual rights, 
in the protection of labor, in the matter of education, in the safe- 
guarding of public health and morals, in the prevention of fraud, in 
the equal distribution of the burdens of government, in the discour- 
agement and punishment of crime, and in the enforcement of humane 
laws, Colorado stands abreast with the most enlightened and pro- 
gressive States of the Union. 

Mr. Chairman, one of the best traits of human nature is the desire 
to advise others of the benefits we enjoy in this world and urge them 
to acquire the same valuable possessions. Scores of patriotic Colo- 
radans, both men and women, have at various times for years trav- 
eled over this country from ocean to ocean and from the Lakes to 
the GuK, at their own expense, mthout the shghtest hope of reward, 
teUing the people the value of political equality. Colorado being the 
most prominent and representative equal-suffrage State, has for 19 
years been called the principal experimental station for woman 
suffrage, and the storm center of attack on the part of advocates and 
opponents. All the shafts of the antisuffr agists on earth have been 
constantly hurled with fiendish desperation at our State. Hundreds 
of our public-spirited men and women have spent an incalculable 
amount of time, thought, energy, and money in answering inquiries 
from all over the world and in disproving the many vicious libels of 
the muck-raking magazines, yellow journals, and wanton slanders of 
mercenary sensational critics. 

While all the old stereotyped stock of objections and obsolete argu- 
ments that have been doing valiant service for three generations 
have long since been exploded and ridiculed out of existence by the 
women themselves and by the actual experiences of every one of our 
six equal-suffrage States and by every country in the world where 



14 EQUAL SUFFEAGE IN COLORADO. 

it has been tried — and while I do not at all assume that I can add 
anything new to what everyone who has studied the question already 
knows — nevertheless the subject at this time is being more generally 
discussed throughout the United States than ever before in our his- 
tory; and as active campaigns for the adoption of equal-rights con- 
stitutional amendments are now in progress in the States oi Oregon, 
Kansas, Wisconsin, Ohio, and Michigan, and as I am receiving hun- 
dreds of letters and inquiries from those States and some of the others, 
I will, even at the risk of merely reiterating some of the conclusive 
answers that have been more eloquently given many a time before, 
give some of my personal observations and judgment upon a number 
of phases of the question. One of the first questions most often 
asked of me is: 

DO THE WOMEN OF COLORADO VOTE ? 

An3^one can answer that question by simply looking at the elec- 
tion records and the census. Any claim that good women do not 
vote is squarely and conclusively contradicted by the election re- 
turns from all the equal-suffrage States of the Union. If you will 
compare the total population by this last census, or any census 
of the States that have equal suffrage, and then take the total vote 
of those States for President or governor, and compare that vote 
with the total vote of other States, you will see that the increased 
vote in the suffrage States is exactly in proportion to the total 
female population in those States, showing clearly that the women 
do vote in practically as large proportion according to their numbers 
as the men. 

In Colorado there are from 35,000 to 40,000 more men than 
women. At the general fall election once every two years about 
85 per cent of all the men and women vote. But owing to there 
being so many more men than women in the State, by actual count, 
the vote of the women in the State is on an average about 45 per 
cent of the entire vote. In some precincts it runs over 50 per cent. 
For the office which I hold, of Congressman at Large, at the presi- 
dential election in 1908 I received 127,000 votes and my prmcipal 
opponent received 121,000, while the Socialist had 8,000 and the 
Prohibitionist 6,000 votes, and there were some scattering votes, 
making a total of about 265,000 votes. There is no State in the 
Union with the same population as Colorado that had within 125,000 
as many votes as Colorado had, showing that there were at least 
that many women voted in our State, and we had relatively the same 
proportionate number in the last general State election in 1910, and 
will have more than that at the election this fall. 

Every election, everywhere, there are^some men who fail to vote 
because they have not registered, or have not time, or do not care, 
or are sick, or the weather is bad, or have not informed themselves 
about the issues or candidates. The same reasons apply to a few 
women every election. By the last census there are 800,000 people 
in Colorado. There will be 300,000 votes polled in the State tliis 
fall. That is twice as many proportionately as will be cast in any 
male-suffrage State in the Union this fall, and we now have a good 
registration law and there is no illegal voting. 



EQUAL SUFFRAGE IN COLOEADO. 15 

The Colorado Legislature, during the time I was a member, de- 
clared, by a practically unanimous vote of both the senate and the 
house, that from the time their right to vote was recognized the 
women of Colorado have exercised the privilege of voting as gener- 
ally as men. It is an undisputed fact that in every State in the 
country where the franchise has been extended to women the vote 
of the men has steadily risen. The vote of the men is much larger 
proportionately in all the equal-suffrage States of the Union than 
in those in which women are unenfranchised. 

I am often asked if the best women in Colorado vote. As a matter 
of fact, it is the good women who vote in the largest numbers, pro- 
portionately — that is, in the better residenc? sections of every city and 
town and throughout the country the women vote is much larger, in 
proportion to the female population, than it is in the less prosperous 
and less desirable localities. There is no class of w^omen in Colorado, 
no matter what their station in life may be, who do not vote. In the 
little city of Glenwood Springs, where I live, I do not know oi theie 
being a woman in the city or surrounding country who does not vote. 
The records of nearly every voting precinct in the State will substan- 
tiate what I say, and any person who makes the assertion that any 
appreciable per cent of the good women do not vote is unqualifiedly 
misrepresenting the facts. There are 125,000 as good and intelligent 
women as ever lived on this planet who vote at every general election 
in Colorado, and I am supremely proud to say that more than one-half 
of them have voted for me twice, and I am almost equally as proud in 
the belief that I retain the respect of all of those who voted against irq. 
I represent in the House nearly five times as many voters as the other 
Members do, and I ought to be, and am, the proudest man in Congress 
of my constituency, especially the women. 

DO THE BAD WOMEN OF COLORADO VOTE? 

It has been repeatedly stated by numerous governors of our State 
and many other public officials and prominent politicians that there 
was only from one-third to one-half of 1 per cent of the women of the 
State who are immoral or disreputable. From my observations of 
public affairs and experiences in politics in our State, extending over 
30 years, and from my knowledge as district attorney, extending over 
the northwestern quarter of the State, and services as county attorney 
and city attorney for many years, and my experience in the State 
senate and official consideration of all classes of our people, I am con- 
fident that less than one-half of 1 per cent of the women of the State 
are bad. In other words, there is not more than 1 immoral woman to 
every 200 good women. So that if all the immoral women voted, 
which they do not, and if only one-half of the good women voted, the 
preponderance of the good-women votes would be at least 100 to every 
immoral vote. Therefore the utterly thoughtless, and in some cases 
willful, assertion about disreputable women outweighing the number 
of good women is not only a ridiculous bugaboo, but is a slander upon 
the women of the country. Not only in Colorado but in nearly every 
•other State the good women outnumber the bad women fully 200 to 1 
Moreover, the women of the half-world do not willingly vote at all. 
They are constantly changing their names and residences. They are 
a migratory class. 



16 EQUAL SUFFEAGE IN COLORADO. 

They do not register unless they are compelled to. They do not % 
like to give any data concerning themselves or as to their real name 
or address. They shrink from publicity and prefer to remain unidenti- 
fied. The policemen in charge of those parts of every city know sub- 
stantially the number of them all the time. They are very largely 
under the power of the police and sheriff's office, and unless they com- 
pel them to vote they generally stay away. And even where they are 
forced to vote, not over one-fifth of them are qualified voters. So that 
their influence is negligible; in fact, it is actually infinitesimal. They 
are no menace whatever. In fact, if it was known that they were 
voting for any particular ticket or candidate it would do that ticket 
or candidate ten times more harm than good. Of all classes of women, 
prostitutes are the ones who least wish to be registered and vote. 

Some people seem to have the queer impression that everybody 
in a city or town votes in the same place, and that the men and 
women have a general scramble to vote, and all kinds of unseemly 
conduct on election day. We of the West can not comprehend how 
any sensible people can get such ideas. No large crowds of people 
vote in one place. Every city and town and the country is divided 
into small election precincts, usually not over 300 voters in a precinct. 
Everyone must vote in his or her own precinct. There are no lewd 
women in the country or in the small towns, and in the large towns 
and all cities they are strictly confined to certain districts. They 
are not allowed in the residence portions of the city. In the city of 
Denver, with its population of 215,000, there are, as I recollect it, 211 
election precincts, and all the scarlet women are confined to 3 or 4 
precincts. So that 99 per cent of the women of the city never come 
in contact with or ever see them. The same applies generally over 
the State. In fully 19 out of every 20 precincts in the State there 
are no immoral women whatever. Unless she lives in one of those 
precincts including the ' 'red-light" district, no respectable woman 
ever sees an immoral woman at an election in Colorado. 

The assertion is made by some antisuITragists that by granting the 
right to vote to women there will be added to the vote of every 
criminal man the vote of a criminal woman is utterly without founda- 
tion. The vicious and criminal class among women is comparatively 
very small indeed. In the prisons of the United States, including all 
kinds of ofTenders, only 5 per cent of the prisoners are women. j.n 
other words, there are 20 criminal men to every criminal woman. 
In the Colorado State Penitentiary and Reformatory there are to-day 
nearly 900 men, and only about 20 women. Equal suurage would 
increase the moral and law-abiding vote at least 200 to every immoral 
or criminal vote. This is a matter not of conjecture but of statistics. 

In the State of Idaho prostitutes are disfranchised entirely, and if 
they at any time should become a- disturbing element or in the 
slightest aH'ect the result of elections, that action would undoubtedly 
be promptly taken in the other States. One reason it has not, I 
apprehend, is because a great many bad men vote, and many so-called 
good men do not. Moreover, there is a kind of a humane sentiment 
that so long as th(\v never take any part in elections and so few 
of them vote, no one should wish to deny tliis most unfortunate class 
of hinnan beings whatever protection a vote can give them; at least, 
so long as men of the same class are voters. 



EQUAL SUFFRAGE IN COLORADO. 17 

DO HUSBANDS AND WIVES TOTE ALIKE? 

Among the various far-fetched and so-called grounds of opposition 
to woman suffrage that I have heard, and which is utterly without 
foundation, is the assertion that women would become as partisan 
or more so than men, and thereby merely double the party vote and 
accomplish no real good. Nothing could be further from the actual 
facts. Women, when they are enfranchised, in every State are;, 
practically speaking, nonpartisan. They have not, Jike the men, 
inherited their politick from their fathers; and in States where the 
people are nearly evenly divided between the parties, practically- 
half of the girls marry men of different politics from that of their, 
fathers. So that in reality they start in very independent, and the 
great majority of them remain comparatively so. ^Yhile possibly 
from 75 to 90 per cent of the married women vote mainly the general 
party ticket the same way that their husbands do because their 
interests are the same, nevertheless a small per cent of them always 
vote independently; and all of them are perfectly free to scratch 
their ticket, and a very, very large per cent of them do so. It is very 
seldom that either party elects a straight ticket. We nearly always 
have a mixture of officeholders. In other words, the women are 
nothing like as partisan as the men. They are very intelligent voters. 
They know the art of scratching thoroughly; they are exceedingly 
proficient in picking out fellows who are no good. 

While they vote the head of the ticket quite largely •as their hus- 
bands or brothers do, nevertheless they always feel perfectly at lib- 
erty, and they exercise the freedom of selecting good men on the 
opposite ticket and almost invariably vote against bad men on what 
may be called their own party ticket. And that freedom of action 
never causes any friction whatever in the home. I have never in my 
life heard of a Colorado man having a quarrel or even assuming to 
complain or criticize his wife for exercising her choice and best judg- 
ment. ■ In fact, some strong party men who feel that for party regu- 
larity they should not vote against anyone on their own ticket, at 
the same time they have not the slightest objections to their wives 
exercising an intelligent independence which they know is for the 
"j^n^ral good and which they feel it is not policy for them to exercise. 
In fact, every politician in the State has occasion to know that 
women can and will scratch their tickets. And when women have 
mastered, as they quickly do, the art of scratching, they have learned 
the most difficult feature of voting. 

Women are not natural-born politicians like men are. They are 
not as crafty or ambitious politically as the men are. The natural 
result is that the men practically control politics, i. e., the party 
machinery of the State. At the same time the women read the 
papers. They talk among themselves. They learn quite fully about 
all the candidates and what they stand for. They discuss political 
issues and the candidates with the male members of the family, and 
they are thoroughly advised as to who's who. Women's interests 
can not, generally speaking, be roused very much by mere partisan 
strife. Women never become hysterical and very seldom show much 
enthusiasm over a mere party nominee. Their interests center 

S. Doc. 722, 62-2- 2 



18 EQUAL SUFFRAGE IN COLORADO. 

around questions affecting education, public cleanliness, public morals, 
civic beauty, charity and corrections, and public health, public 
libraries, the care of the children and the home, and the enforcement 
of humane laws, and such subjects and matters as affect the welfare 
of the home and family. Men look after the business interests and 
financial questions, while the moral and humane questions appeal 
more to the women. In other words, men and women are different 
in their character and thoughts, and the influence and judgment of 
both is beneficial in civic and governmental affairs just the same as 
they are in well-regulated and orderly family relations. The hus- 
band is hustling for the almighty dollar and thinking about business 
matters, while the wife and mother is more directly concerned about 
the welfare of the children and the preservation of the home, the 
moral surroundings of the family, and his and her public actions are 
largely a reflection of the same man and woman sentiments that 
appear in an orderly conducted home. 

A just man ought to, and every loyal son of Colorado does, accord 
to every other human being, even to his own wife, the same political 
rights which he demands for himself. 

ARE WOMEN OFFICE SEEKERS? 

No one need have any fear of the women monopolizing all the 
offices. There has never been any rush of women for offices. Giving 
a woman the* right to vote does not change her feminine character- 
istics or her womanly nature in the slightest. The women as a class 
are never chronic or inveterate office seekers. In fact, there is not one 
out of five hundred who ever thinks of being a candidate for office. 
They are not ambitious for office. They are never avaricious for 
power and influence like men are. Men are shrewder politicians and 
much more unscrupulous than women. In nine cases out of ten 
when a woman does seek the nomination for an office she is earnestly 
solicited to do so by many of her friends and acquaintances who 
recognize her exceptional qualifications for the position. Moreover, 
women scarcely ever strive for or want the more important positions 
that the men want. The men want the positions that pay the large 
salaries and require executive ability and other responsibilities, and 
that involve control of party machinery, patronage, and large affairs. 
As a rule women are never candidates for positions of that kind. 
They do not care to be political bosses, and nine hundred and ninety- 
nine out of one thousand instinctively shrink from allowing them- 
selves to be made candidates for the highest or best positions. 

There is no reason why a fair share of important offices should not 
be given to women, and they undoubtedly will be as time goes on and 
women become more qualified to fill them. But in the meantime the 
women are contented with the educational and clerical positions and 
minor offices that require energy and much painstaking diligence and 
conscientious work, and which are compensated by smaller salaries. 
Furthermore, it should be remembered that all of the offices in any 
State or county or city is only an infinitesimal amount in number as 
compared with the entire population, and there is not one-tenth as 
much reason for the claim that if women vote all of them would want 
to hold office as there is regarding the men. Neither of them can be 



EQUAL SUFFRAGE IN COLORADO. 19 

elected without receiving the majority of all the votes, both male and 
female, and that vote will not be given to either unless the candidate 
is well fitted for the position. 

There are many public-spirited and well-to-do women who have 
more leisure than their husbands, and who take an active interest in 
charitable work and the welfare of the unfortunate; and they often 
serve on those official boards and do a world of good without any 
compensation whatever. But they are clothed with the authority 
that compels the officials in charge to carry out their recommenda- 
tions, which they would not do if the women were not backed up by 
the ballot. 

The voting age of women is 21 years, the same as men, and in 
Colorado there are only a comparatively small per cent of the women 
21 years of age who are not married, and most of those who are not 
married are school-teachers, or stenographers, or deputies in offices, 
or occupying some clerical position, or clerking in stores. All of the 
women of Colorado are exceptionally intelligent and well informed on 
public affairs. The great majority of the married women have their 
family affairs to look after, and they do not care to hold offices. But 
all of them are interested in who are elected to offices and the way the 
public officials administer their offices. 

OFFICES NOW HELD BY WOMEN IN COLORADO. 

State superintendent of public instruction: Mrs. Helen M. Wixon. 

Regent of State university: Miss Anna L. Wolcott, a sister of for- 
mer United States Senator Edward O. Wolcott. 

State penitentiary commissioner: Mrs. Helen L. Grenfel (formerly 
for six years State superintendent of public instruction) . 

President elections commission in city and county of Denver : Miss 
Ellis Meredith. 

Four members of the legislature : ^Irs. Alma V. Lafferty, Mrs. Agnes 
L. Riddle, Mrs. Louise U. Jones, and Mrs. Louise M. Kerwin (the first 
named being chairman of the committee on education). 

Judge of the county court of Eagle County: Mrs. Lydia B. Tague 
(probably the first instance in the history of the world where a woman 
has been the judge of an important court of record). 

Recorder of the city of Denver: Mrs. Lucy I. Harrington. 

Auditor of city of Pueblo: Mrs. Carrie E. Truman. 

Two members of the State board of charities and corrections: Mrs. 
Ella S. Williams and Dr. Elizabeth Cassidy. 

Vice president State civil service commission: Mrs. Sarah Piatt 
Decker (formerly president of the General Federation of Women's 
Clubs). 

Trustee State normal school: Mrs, Thalia A. Rhoads. 

Trustee of State school for deaf and blind: Mrs. M. S. McDonald. 

Factory inspector: Mrs. Katherine Williamson. 

Four of the five members of both the boards of trustees of the State 
home for dependent and neglected children and industrial school for 
girls. 

Mrs. Mary C. C. Bradford, the present superintendent of public 
instruction in the city and county of Denver, was a delegate to the 
last National Democratic Convention. 



20 EQUAL SUFFRAGE IN COLORADO. 

Mrs. Anna H. Pitzer, of Colorado Springs, the sister-in-law of 
Speaker Champ Clark, has just been elected a delegate to the National 
Democratic Convention that meets in Baltimore in June, 1912. 

County superintendents of public instruction in 45 out of the 62 
counties in the State. 

In 5 or 6 counties the offices of either a county commissioner or the 
county clerk or county treasurer is held by a woman. 

There are over 500 women members of school boards throughout 
the State. 

The positions of postmaster are held by women in, I think, about 
40 towns in the State. 

The positions of clerk or treasurer in some 40 or 50 cities and towns 
are held by w^omen, and a great many deputyships are held by women. 

There are several women official court stenographers and clerks of 
courts. 

Women have held office more extensively in Colorado than in any 
of the other suffrage States so far. Most of them have been married 
women or widows with grown or half-grown children. 

The right of suffrage has quite largely increased the number of 
women chosen to such offices as were already open to them before. 
In Colorado women were eligible to the position of county superin- 
tendent of schools before their enfranchisement, but when they 
obtained the ballot the number of v/omen elected to these positions 
showed an immediate and very large increase. 

The duties of the offices which the women hold are performed in an 
efficient manner, and above all things they are absolutely honest. 

DOES EQUAL SUFFRAGE CAUSE DIVORCES? 

There is not a single instance on record anywhere in any court in 
the State, and there never in zO years has been a case in Colorado, 
where a divorce has been granted on account of political difference, 
or where the trouble between husband and wife arose from politics, 
or where either one ever even claimed that politics had anything to 
do with it. So that the charge made against our State as to divorces 
being in any manner connected with equal suffrage is as false as any- 
thing can be. Differences in religion between husbands and wives 
produce a thousand times more quarrels than differences in politics 
do, and yet no one would nowadays ever think of trying to compel 
a woman to choose her religion to suit her husband. 

DO WOMEN LOSE ANY OF THEIR INFLUENCE OR CEASE TO BE AS MUCH 

RESPECTED ? 

The brazen claim that women will become unsexed or lose any of 
the respect of men is not only entirely without foundation, but 
utterly absurd. In the olden times men had the right to chastise 
their wives. They could take them out in the smokehouse and whip 
them. Plave the men nowadays got any less respect for their wives 
because they can not lick them any more ? Respect for woman is 
based upon her moral character, her intelligence, and her own self- 
respect. Women are not becoming less respected because they have 
been admitted to collegt^s and universities. Women are just as 



EQUAL SUFFRAGE IN COLORADO. 21 

feminine in Colorado as any place on earth, and they are better wives 
because they are better informed and more companionable to their 
husbands. The enfranchisement of the wife has given another com- 
mon interest to the household. It has had no tendency to create dis- 
cord in the home. On the contrary, it has brought a comradeship in 
politics, something similar to that of religion, that used to be found 
in many families in the East. 

There is nothing whatever degrading to a woman to quietly go 
down to the polls on election day once or twice a year and cast her vote 
along with her husband or brother or with women friends. There 
is not the slightest tendency whatever in Colorado among the men 
to omit the ordinary politeness due the women. In fact, I believe 
our women by their superior general intelligence and companionable 
charms command and receive more courteous attention than in any 
other State. Under equal suffrage there is a much more chivalrous 
devotion and respect on the part of the men, who look upon their sis- 
ters not as playthings nor as property, but as equal and full citizens. 
We are proud of our Colorado women. Nine hundred and ninety- 
nine out of a thousand of them conduct themselves in a ladylike and 
exemplary manner and we know that the highest consideration of 
justice and good government justifies and demands equal suffrage 
for women. I have little regard for a son who swells up and says 
that he is better than his mother. To-day a boy in his teens in a 
country or a State where women are given the right to vote does not 
look upon his mother or his sister as belonging to the sex that must 
be kept within a prescribed sphere, but as a human being, clothed 
with the dignity of all those rights and powers which he hopes to 
enjoy within a few years. 

The differences between men and women are natural ; they are not 
the result of disfranchisement. The fact that all men have equal 
rights before the law does not wipe out the natural differences of 
character and temperament between man and man. Why should it 
wipe out the natural differences between men and women? Both 
men and women of the various different countries where woman suf- 
frage is granted are much different in their looks and manners from 
each other; and yet it has had no perceptible effect toward unsexing 
or making women less womanly than they have always been. 

To us people of the West it is utterly stupid for anyone to assume 
that the vote will lessen the present influence of women. The influ- 
ence of any class of men, or any individual man, has never in the 
world been lessened because he had the power to vote. Such absurd 
and ancient falsehoods should no longer be tolerated or listened to as 
serious arguments. 

DO WOMEN BECOME PARTISAN? 

Women will vote for the right as they see it. They vote for men 
rather than party principles. That is one of the reasons that they 
a^e feared by certain pohticians. I have heard it said great reformers 
never vote straight tickets, and women ver}- seldom do. They are 
conservative reformers. Woman's adherence to party does not gen- 
erally prevail as against her judgment on policies or candidates. They 
take the motto as a slogan, ^^ Within the party if we can, \\dthout it if 
we must." 



22 EQUAL SUFFRAGE IN COLORADO. 

There has never been a purely party measure that has been espoused 
by women in the Colorado Legislature. The women of all parties 
want the same things and have always worked for them together in 
perfect harmony. Men thoroughly understand that, in legislative 
matters, when they oppose the women they are opposing practically 
all of the women and the great independent vote of the State. 

Men are stronger politically than w^omen, and men dominate the 
politics of the State and cities. But man's domination is always influ- 
enced and often controlled by woman's natural and instinctive desire 
for honesty and better moral conditions in pohtics as in everything 
else. There is no such thing as a distinct woman's vote in the sense 
that there is in most cities an Italian vote or a Swede vote or a German 
vote. 

Men lose sight of these important considerations in the scramble for 
partisan warfare for office, but women will not permit them to be 
obscured by anything. 

HAVE COLORADO WOMEN LOST THEIR WOMANLINESS OR DETERIO- 
RATED MORALLY? 

The objection that ^^it is unwomanly" has been made to every 
change in the status of woman from the time she ceased to be a beast 
of burden and we men decided to give her a soul and a seat at our 
dinner table to the present time. The days when ridicule and con- 
tempt were the reception accorded any attempt of the woman to 
enlarge her activities or broaden and enrich her life belong to another 
century. We have to-day urgent need for better fathers and wiser 
mothers. The feminist leaders of Europe and the United States are 
changing the attitude of the race toward one-half of its members. 

To-day girls form 56 per cent of the pupils enrolled in our secondary 
schools and a large majority of those in ail our high schools. The old 
days when women were compelled to keep silent are past. To-day in 
every field of human endeavor her voice is heard. By the legal 
establishment and recognizing of women citizenship, the intellect and 
character and reciprocal estimation of both sexes has been raised. 
The possession of the ballot has given women an interest in general as 
well as political affairs, and this has naturally stimulated the men. 

There is no real ground of fear for American marriages and the home. 
Nothing can break the bond between the sexes. Our own higher 
development will bring better conditions. We will have higher and 
happier marriages than ever before. 

It is an absolute fallacy — the assertion that the activity of women 
in politics is in any sense whatever a movement of the sexes against 
each other; in reality it is the making of the sexes more companion- 
able to each other and nearer on an equality. 

Ex-Gov. Alva Adams, of Colorado, said before the House Judiciary 
Committee: 

I have known personally at least 10,000 women voters of Colorado, and I have 
never known one to be less a woman, or less a mother, or less a housekeeper, or less a 
heart keeper from the fact that she voted — not one. I have studied this question for 
30 years. I did not go out there, as this correspondent (the author of an article in the 
Outlook) went out there, with a lunch basket and a return ticket, and simply expect 
in 10 days to pass judgment upon this great experiment. 



EQUAL SUFFEAGE IN COLOEADO. 23 

There is no place on this planet where women are more womanly, 
more modest, more charming, or more attentive to their home duties, 
or better wives or mothers than they are in Colorado. In fact, we 
know that the broadened influence which the ballot has given them 
has very largely tended to enhance the ver}^ virtues and charms which 
distinguish true womanhood. . 

DO WOMEN NEGLECT THEIR HOMES AND CHILRDEN ? 

We have from childhood constantly heard the solemn assertion 
that the place for women is the home. I have never heard of anyone 
denying that platitude, and certainly the women of Colorado do not 
deny it. If there is anything in this world that a woman naturally 
wants it is a home. That is her natural place, and her main task in 
this world is home making. In fact, every married woman in this 
country is a self-appointed and ex ofhcio member of the Mothers' 
Home Protective League. But nowadays home is not contained 
within the four walls of an individual house. Home is merely the 
center of her sphere from which her influence should radiate. The 
home is largely the community, and the city or town full of people is 
the larger family of womankind. A woman can not merely stay in the 
home. Even to have a clean house it is necessary to have clean 
streets. To have clean streets it is necessar}^ to elect a clean mayor. 
The same may be applied to all municipal oflicers and to school 
boards and health boards. In fact, all government to-day is in a 
certain sense merely housekeeping on a large scale. For some parts 
of this housekeeping the men may always remain better qualified 
than women. In other parts of it women will always be better quali- 
fied than men. But it takes both men and women to make a home. 
Mothers need the baUot to regulate the moral conditions under which 
their children must be brought up. The men's time is consumed in 
looking after industrial and commercial interests, but they need the 
cooperation and help of women in things governing home life. The 
community and the welfare of men themselves need the increased 
influence of women more than even the women need the ballot. 
Woman is largel}^ responsible, not only for the cleanliness of her 
house and the wholesomeness of the food, but for the health and 
morals of the children and the conditions under which her children 
live; and if she is primarily held responsible for those conditions, she 
should have something to say in the election of the officials and the 
making of the laws and ordinances by which those conditions are 
governed. 

Equal suffrage in Colorado has made a new and powerful commu- 
nity of interests in the home, and it is a good thing for all members 
of the home and for the home itself. The responsibility of voting 
does not for a moment divert feminine attention from home duties. 
In fact, it accentuates woman's place in the home by giving her an 
important place in its protection. 

But there is another serious and important consideration. There 
are upward of 7,000,000 w^omen in the United States to-day who in 
reality have no home. Economic conditions have driven them into 
the factoiy, the mill, the shop, and the store. They have not left 
their homes of their own volition; they are not earnmg a livelihood 
in competition with the men of their o\vn election. Xo one will ever 



24 EQUAL SUFFRAGE IN COLORADO. 

assert that women voluntarily leave their homes to become wage 
earners. If some of them think the ballot would help them to better 
their conditions and enable them to have homes, are they to be 
blamed and ridiculed for entertaining that hope ? 

Ninety-nine per cent of the women of Colorado take no more time 
in politics than to attend probably two or three political meetings 
every two years and go to the polls on election day to cast their vote. 
The women of Colorado, generally speaking, do not spend 1 per cent 
of their time in political matters that they spend in social duties. It 
only takes a Colorado woman 10 or 15 minutes away from her home 
to cast a vote. But during those few minutes she is wielding the most 
tremendous power any woman ever had on this earth for the protec- 
tion of her home and the homes of all others. 

DOES IT INCREASE OR DIMINISH CORRUPTION IN POLITICS? 

There is no man worthy of the name who will deny the statement 
that the influence of his mother and his wife and his sister and his 
daughter is good. Her influence is beneficial from her childhood to 
her grave. Is there a man who would have the hardihood to say that 
he feels his mother, his wife, his sister, or daughter w^ould be more 
corrupt than he is or less honest than he is in exercising the elective 
franchise ? When you grant equal suffrage to women, it is our 
mothers and wives and sisters and daughters who are going to vote. 
And if you assume that the influence of the ignorant or disreputable 
women is going to outweigh. that of the good and the moral women 
of the country, you are either assuming that a majority of the women 
are ignorant or disreputable or that the good women will not vote. 
I most emphatically deny both of those assumptions. The records 
conclusively show that good women do vote, and every decent citi- 
zen knows that the overwhelming majority of women are moral, are 
intelligent, and are thoughtful and reputable; and they are a^ solicit- 
ous about the moral welfare of the community and society as the men 
are; and, in fact, more so. I have never heard of a woman being 
prosecuted or even seriously charged with the commission of a crime 
in regard to an election. I have heard it repeatedly stated — and I 
believe it is true — that the men are guilty of 99 per cent of all political 
corruption in Colorado. 

There may possibly be a few very rare cases where a woman has 
been implicated in some political crookedness, but if there are an}^ such 
cases that I have never heard of you will find that she was put up to 
it by some men who were trying to shield themselves beliind her, and 
there will be 99 men more guilty than she. And when it comes to the 
exercising of the elective franchise, I am absolutely certain that for 
every woman who may have been justly chargeable with any wrong- 
doing there will be 99 men who are more guilty. We have sent a good 
many men to jail and some to the penitentiary; and, of course, some of 
tliem may sometimes attempt to hide behind the skirt of some woman 
of whom tliey have tried to make a stool pigeon. But it is not true 
tliat women in any appreciable number whatever voluntarily enter 
into any kind of political fraud. They are intensely in favor of clean 
politics and honest elections. In fact, the good moral influence of 
women is s])leudidly demonstrated in i)olitics. Generally speaking, 



EQUAL SUFFRAGE IN COLORADO. 25 

throughout the entire State there has been a wonderful change in 
the places and manner of holding elections in Colorado. The meetings 
for the caucuses and the polling places are all in respectable places, 
and there is no rowdyism or disturbances whatever about the polls ; 
and our political conventions, while they are intensely exciting and 
the interest runs high, because Coloradoans are wide-awake and 
ambitious people, at the same tiriie all public meetings are conducted 
in an orderly manner, and no woman need hesitate to attend them 
either as a delegate or as a spectator. 

No one claims that all women are honorable, and political power 
may occasionally uncover some moral weakness. But women are 
by far the most virtuous, most moral, and equally intelligent half of 
our population. A people will have a government just as good as, 
and no better than, they are. 

One sure way of answering the question as to whether or not equal 
suffrage increases corruption in politics is to inquu^e who are the oppo- 
nents of equal suffrage. Some of our opponents seem to get great 
satisfaction over the assertion that a majority of the socialists in Los 
Angeles voted for equal suffrage. They do not mention that Emma 
Goldman, the most notorious anarchist in this country, is going about 
the -country lecturing on "Why I am not a woman suffragist." 

Everyone who knows anything about woman suffrage or about 
human nature, or who has had anythmg to do with public affairs or 
politics, knows that the vicious and criminal vote is always cast 
solidly against equal rights for women. All those who thrive upon 
the violation of the law in any way or upon corruption in politics are 
the bitterest enemies of woman suffrage. Every gambler, every 
ballot-box stuffer, every political thug, every dive keeper, every 
depraved denizen of the red-light districts and all of their associates, 
everyone who is opposed to public decency, every professional 
debaucher of the public moral, and every conceivable variety of 
crook in the world is viciously and desperately opposed to women 
being enfranchised, and they never cease exhausting their vocabulary 
cursing woman suffrage. 

DOES IT DOUBLE THE IGNORANT OR FOREIGN OR CRIMINAL VOTE ? 

As there are one-third more girls than boys attending the high 
schools of this country, the women are very rapidly becommg the 
more educated class. According to the last census, the illiterate men 
of this country very greatly outnumber the illiterate women. There- 
fore, extending the franchise to women will actually increase the 
proportion of intelligent voters. Moreover, extending the franchise 
to women will very largely increase the number of native-born voters, 
because there are in the United States over 12 times as many native- 
born women as foreign born. It is also a matter of record that a less 
proportion of the foreign born than the native born vote, and as there 
are much fewer women than men immigrants the enfranchisement of 
women will therefore doubly tend to minimize the influence of the 
foreign vote. 

Another important feature is that the foreign women are usually 
much better in morals and intelligence than the foreign men, to 
whom the ballot is already given. 



26 EQUAL SUFFEAGE IN COLORADO. 

According to tlie census of 1910, there are in the United States 
7,500,000 foreign males and 5,800,000 foreign females — that is, 129 
foreign males to every 100 females of the same class. A foreign vote 
is objectionable only so far as it is an ignorant vote. Intelligent 
foreigners, both men and women, are usually very acceptable citizens. 
We also notice another interesting feature in this connection in 
Colorado, and that is that, owing to their Old World ideas which the 
foreigners bring with them, the foreign women vote but very little 
indeed until they become quite thoroughly Americanized. 

While on ordinary questions the foreign-woman vote would be 
very much like the native-woman vote, and would to quite a large 
degree, duplicate the men's vote, that would not be true of special 
questions affecting women and children or the home or matters of 
morality or questions of decency. This is one of the main points of 
the equal-suffrage question. And if women take the moral and 
humane side on c[uestions affecting the welfare of the home and the 
good of society, it is of comparatively little importance whether or 
not on other questions their votes are duplicates. The taxes paid by 
women will very much more than meet the cost of printing and 
counting the extra ballots. Moreover, in a democrary like ours it is 
of the greatest importance and benefit to the whole people, both men 
and women, that all of the population interest themselves in all 
public questions. It has been repeatedly stated that a republic is 
sound at heart only when all of its adult members take an ardent 
interest in its affairs. Too many votes can not possibly be cast in a 
right cause in a democracy which lives and breathes by the public 
opinion of the men and women who compose it. 

There is in this country no lack in our politics of business ability, 
executive talent, or shrewdness of any kind. But there is much 
danger of lack of conscience, character, and humanity. The business 
interests, which appeal more specially to men, are weU looked after; 
but the moral and humanitarian interests, which appeal more 
specially to women, are too apt to be neglected. 

DO WOMEN READILY UNDERSTAND POLITICS? 

The ludicrous assertion that women should not be allowed to vote 
because they do not know enough is only equaled in antiquity and 
absurdity by the little, old, familiar verse: 

Mother, dear, may I go swim? 

Yes, my darling daughter; 
Go hang your clothes on a hickory limb, 

But don't go near the water. 

The women of Seattle knew enough to fire a crooked mayor in 
about 15 minutes after they were given the ballot; and they knew 
enough again, a few days ago, to defeat him for reelection. 

Women learn how to vote mighty quickly. They do not have to 
serve any apprenticeship to know the difference betwen decency and 
corruption or between an honest man and a crook. She always knows 
the diiTerence between good and bad government and everything 
pertaining to educational matters or matters affecting the home, 
and nJl politicians will very soon learn that she is exceedingly alert 
and well informed upon all moral questions and questions aifectuig 



EQUAL SUFFRAGE II^T (30L0EAD0. " 27 

society and good governmeiit and clean candidates. She compie- 
hends intuitively and instinctively. In fact, on questions of that 
kind she is much more mterested than men, and the advice of every 
married woman is of great assistance to her husband. In reality, 
on all questions of that kind, instead of a husband voting his wife 
there is a great deal more likelihood of the wife voting the husband. 

It is utterl}^ absurd and idiotic to assert that women are not 
sufficiently intelligent to vote. And even if they had no more in- 
telligence than the ignorant portions of the male population that vote, 
they have a great deal more honesty than the men have, and honesty 
is needed in politics of the present day even more than intelligence. 
They certainly have sufficient intelligence to decide whether the}^ are 
properly governed and who they will be governed by. 

THE DEVELOPING POWER OF RESPONSIBILITY. 

Responsibility is one of the greatest instruments of education, 
both morally and intellectually, and woman never will become 
thoroughly versed in matters of politics until she is given the oppor- 
tunity of studying them under the stimulus and check of responsibility. 

When we consider her handicaps — not merely her natural handicaps 
but the unnatural hardships imposed upon her by civilization and 
sentiment-^ when we consider that for ages she has been discouraged 
from trying to do anything outside of the home, it is no wonder that 
she can not do all things as well as men. Lack of ambition always 
limits efficiency. The wonder is that she does so many things as well 
as she does. Politically speaking, women are somev/hat like unedu- 
cated children. They need to be given the aid and stimulus of suffi- 
cient imagination to know what the lack of education or of responsible 
citizenship means. 

The great economic questions of to-day affect the w^omen just as 
much as they do the men. Their interests are mutual and equal, and 
her enfranchisement has conclusively proven in the six Western 
States that the result is a more enlightened and better balanced citi- 
zenship and a truer democracy. It has been said that the more civi- 
lization advances the more the mterests of men and w^omen coincide 
and the more the suppression of their proper sphere has decreased. 

One-fifth of all the women of this country have been compelled to 
go into the field of business and take positions formerly held by men 
and are actively earning their oa\ti support. The ballot is just as 
imperatively necessar}" to them as it is to the men. It is not only 
contrary to the principles of fair dealing to deny the women the right 
to vote, but this country needs the influence of her ballot, as will be 
conclusively shown by the result of her vote wherever it has been 
given to her. It seems to me infamous that women should be longer 
classed as political nonentities, the same as lunatics, Chinamen, crimi- 
nals, and children. While there is a good reason for excluding all of 
those political nonentities excepting women, there is no good reason 
under heaven for excluding an intelligent woman from trying to 
better the conditions which affect her by the use of the ballot. 

There is no argument or objection ever made against woman 
suffrage that has not been conclusively disproved by the facts in the 
States where it has been tried. She has improved and adorned the 



28 EQUAL SUFFRAGE IN COLORADO. 

offices she has held and the laws she has helped to make and made 
better the politics of our State, as she does everything else she touches. 

A woman who is self-centered and satisfied with the gratification of 
her appetite and vanities is not the highest ideal of our race and is not 
performing her highest duty to society or to humanity. 

Back here in the East at the present time and in the discussion of 
the subject before the committee we hear some of the same old argu- 
ments that we heard in Colorado 20 years ago, when the campaign 
was. on for woman suffrage in our State, and it is in the light of all 
these subsequent years that we look back at the absurd and ridicu- 
lous claims that were made at that time. Those objections have been 
demonstrated beyond question to have all been based upon prejudice, 
bias, and fictitious assumption. 

There were in our State a number of women who, before they were 
enfranchised, did not want to vote. Since then nearly all of them 
have been faithfully performing their duty. 

In all of the States in the Union where men have been compelled to 
yield up some of their so-called inalienable rights and divide some of 
their assumed natural sphere with women it has been discovered that 
women can really cast an intelligent ballot; that equality in a material 
sphere works out to the betterment of both and to the welfare of 
society; and that equal political right in those States is not any more 
listed as one of the absurdities. 

EQUAL SUFFRAGE IS EDUCATING AND BROADENING. 

I have heard it said that the greatest school of life is the ballot box. 
The present world movement for the enfranchisement of women 
shows that under the influence of advanced civilization the nations of 
the earth are becoming ready for universal suffrage and the con- 
ception of society which it implies. Feminism is a world movement. 
It is a part of the eternal forward march of the human race toward a 
genuine democracy. The whole history of the development of civili- 
zation is merely the story of broadening the channel of human liberty 
and opportunity. All over the world woman is doing and thinking 
more effectively than ever before. 

An eminent author has stated that the most impressive and por- 
tentous development of our twentieth-century social order is the 
woman problem. What is the race going to do with the woman? 
And what is the woman going to do with the race ? 

Wlien you consider that women started at the zero point in this 
country a hundred years ago, with customs and her own sentiment 
against her, and that her admission to the colleges designed for men 
was contested more stubbornly than her original admission to the 
primary school had been, we must admit that her rise in the educa- 
tional world is a brilliant feat. It certainly has forever disposed of the 
argument that she is unable. 

■Yomeii's clubs are a wonderfully educational movement. It is 
within the memory of most of us when the American women first 
began to form themselves into clubs. At first they were merely little 
local literary organizations. Afterwards th e matters affecting the wel- 
fare of the community were taken u)) for consideration; and then the 
women commenced forming State federations and afterwards national 
federations; and to-day the General Federation of Women's Clubs, 



EQUAL. SUFFRAGE IN COLORADO. 29 

working in conjunction with the International Council of Women, 
are doing a wonderfully beneficial and humane work for the ameliora- 
tion of the conditions of women all over the world. 

The women's organizations thoroughly realize that their cause for 
the betterment of humanity can be best advanced by giving the 
women the ballot. It is rapidly coming to a condition where the 
inteUigent women of the world are making this appeal for equal rights 
on the ground of natural justice, on the ground of the highest expe- 
diency, and on the ground of the abstract right of all women to all 
possible means of education and all civil rights and privileges which 
the men enjoy. 

The change in the status of women has been so enormous during 
the past 50 years that to-day the opinion of educated women can no 
longer be ignored by educated men. Some one has said that the 
demands of woman suffrage is only one of the outward symbols of 
the stupendous revolution which has taken place during the last 50 
years. 

The women of Colorado are quite largely members of various clubs, 
and they wield an influence that is hardly conceivable by people who 
do not live in the State. They do not only have all the clubs there 
are in other States, but they also have political clubs, and there is a 
great deal of family discussion of public questions, which all has an 
unquestionable tendency to educate and broaden not only the mind 
of the wife but the members of the family. Increased responsibility 
causes increased development and improvement, and increased devel- 
opment means intelligent action and patriotism. 

I have often heard it said that one of the largest book stores in 
Denver sold more books on political economy, sociology, and kindred 
subjects within six months after women were enfranchised than dur- 
ing the entire previous 20 years. There is no question but what the 
possession of the right to vote creates an incentive to broader thoughts 
and greater interest in mankind and womankind for their mutual 
development. 

THE SCHOOLS OF COLORADO. 

The life of a nation depends on the welfare of its children. Colo- 
rado spends more money per capita on her schools than any other 
State in the Union. There is no difference made in the salaries of 
teachers on account of sex. The children have a right to legal pro- 
tection, and their mothers, who are their natural and best guardians, 
have a right to be given every means necessary for their protection. 

There is not a child in Colorado but what has a seat in a school and 
is guarded by law compelling its parents to allow it to go to school. 
Does anyone believe for a moment that if the women had the power 
to make themselves felt in the administration of public affairs that 
there would be to-day 100,000 children on half time in the schools of 
Xew York City and 25,000 without seats in schools in the city of 
Philadelphia and an equal proportion in Chicago and many other 
large cities in this countr}^ ? Does any sane person believe that if the 
women of this country had a vote it would have taken 50 years to 
have passed the bill that just passed Congress creating a Federal 
bureau for the protection of children ? The statistics will show that, 
practically speaking, there are no illiterate voters in the State of 



30 EQUAL SUFFRAGE IN COLOEADO. 

Colorado. A very large part of our population is American born. 
The foreign-born voters must be fully naturalized citizens and must 
have resided at least one year in our State; therefore, neither men 
nor women are allowed to vote until they are fully identi led and 
acquainted with our affairs and conditions. 

Women have equal suffrage in school elections, I believe, in 30 
States of the Union. Has anyone ever had the effrontery to assert 
that their influence has contaminated or had any evil effect upon 
school elections or made less effective the teaching of moral in- 
struction in those States? There never was a moral law started 
anywhere in any State in this Republic but what it has had the ap- 
proval of a great majority of the women, and most of them would sup- 
port it if they were given the power to do so. Everyone knows that 
there is a much stronger propensity in women than in men toward 
the discharge of duties relating to child life. Their moral, educational, 
and health conditions depend largely upon woman for development, 
and she can not efficiently discharge these obligations without con- 
cerning herself as to the laws regulating such affairs. If she is given 
the ballot, she then has the power to safeguard the children by giving 
to them the protection of important laws. It is said that in many 
States where women have a right to vote upon school elections that 
the women pay comparatively little attention to them. That may be 
true where there is no special interest or moral question involved 
and where the candidates are equally worthy. But where one 
candidate represents the moral and another the immoral side of 
questions affecting the welfare of children the women invariably 
take an active interest, and it is needless to say that they are always 
on the side of decency. 

In the State of Colorado women have always had the right to 
vote in school elections; and it is true that they formerly paid 
comparatively little attention to it, excepting, as I have stated, 
when some moral issue was at stake. But since they have been 
given the full right and responsibility of voting, tens of thousands 
of women vote at every election who never in former days thought of 
voting at a school election. 

Another helpful and healthful feature is that prominent women — 
wives of men in well-to-do circumstances — who have no children, 
or whose children have grown up, are beginning more and more to 
recognize the obligations which they owe to others not so fortunate 
in personal protection; and large numbers of them spend a great 
deal of time and money in their efforts and successful determination 
of bettering the laws and conditions surrounding the children of the 
poor and helpless. A glance at the laws, which I have given, will 
convince anyone that the enfranchisement of women has exercised 
a beneficent influence upon the public schools, and toward bettering 
all school conditions and for the general protection and welfare of 
the youth of our Commonwealth. 

It has been stated that ''Women the world over are reformers." 
That is unquestionably true, and it is equally true that women are 
progressive, l^ut they are sanely and conservatively progressive. 
They arc never fanatical or revolutionary. They are wisely dis- 
criminating and shrewd in tlieir public actions. They interest them- 
selves primarily in things of the home, things that make for purity, 



EQUAL SUFFRAGE IN COLORADO. 31 

decency, and humanity; movements that are more social than 
pohtical; matters that pertain to education, morals, civic beauty, 
charities and corrections, sanitation of schoolhouses, charitable and 
reformatory institutions, and specially and above all, everything 
relating to children. 

ELECTION-DAY CUSTOMS IN COLORADO. 

One of the greatest outrages that has ever been perpetrated 
upon any class of public-spirited and splendid citizens is the in- 
famous misrepresentations sent out by tourists, critics, and anony- 
mous liars about election-day customs in Colorado; and to us the 
amazing part of it is, why the eastern press will swallow and publish 
such stuff w^ithout ever making the slightest effort to verify it, and, 
in fact, positively refuse to publish the truth about the actual facts 
in the suffrage States. The result is the general public have imbibed 
a large per cent of the lurid, slanderous, and mercenary libels con- 
cerning woman suffrage. An election day in Colorado is in no way 
different from election day in States where only male suffrage ob- 
tains, excepting that there is an entire lack of drunkenness and dis- 
order of every kind. Mrs. Helen L. Grenfell, in a public address, 
recently said that in 17 years of her actual experience she had never 
yet seen an intoxicated man or heard an oath or seen a discourteous 
action toward any woman at the polling places. 

My wife goes to the polls with me, and she, like all other women, 
always votes absolutely as she wills, and she never wills to vote 
for a bad man, even if he is on my ticket. The slanders which we 
hear about woman suffrage not only debase the people who utter 
them, but they are an impeachment of the decency and honesty 
of womanhood everywhere. 

In residence sections the polling place is usually at a private house. 
There is never the least disorder at the polls, no discourtesy or offense 
of any kind. It is not as trying and does not require as long as it 
does to go to a dry-goods or grocery store. Women often sit beside 
the men as judges of elections, and nearly always two women act 
as clerks of election. Women attend political meetings quite gener- 
ally, and their presence always insures order and decorous procedure. 

I have never seen any serious disturbance at any political meet- 
ing in my State nor witnessed the slightest disorder at any polling 
place during the past 18 years. The women often take their babies 
to the polls in a gocart. 

A man must give his exact age, while a woman only swears she 
is over 21 years old. 

Husband and wife, father and daughter, brothers and sisters, 
or women in pairs or little groups go to the polls together as to any 
other meeting. No political party nor the officials of any part}' 
would think of locating a polling place anywhere where a woman would 
hesitate to go. The polls are as much protected as the post office 
or any other respectable place. Every man shows the utmost 
respect to every woman at the polls. There is no electioneering 
within 100 feet of the polls. Everything about the polling bootli 
is courteous and orderly. Immoral women do not disturb or 
trouble good women any more at the polls than they do at a 
store or at a theater. Generally speaking, there are no saloons in 



32 EQUAL SUFFRAGE IN COLORADO. 

the residence portions of any city or town, and I would say ninety- 
five precincts out of every hundred in the State have no saloons in 
them, and in ninety-nine out of every hundred precincts in the 
State there are no immoral women. Women are nothing like as 
venal as men naturally, and, in fact, there is never any attempt 
made to corrupt them. In fact, women give an atmosphere of 
decency and respectability to the voting places. In the elections 
they are treated with all due respect and make election day one of 
pleasure instead of one of riot and drunkenness. 

Polling places are not only in proper and convenient buildings, 
but they are always orderly and clean. There is no smoking or 
swearing or unseemly conduct of any kind. The individual dignity 
of women is strengthened by the ballot. I never knew of a woman 
being even embarrassed at the polls or at any public meeting. While 
the women take as much interest in voting as do the men, they 
do not neglect their home duties by standing on the streets talking 
politics. 

The difference between ''influence'' and ''power" can readily 
be seen by comparing the results in Colorado and in other States 
where women do not vote. The women of our State have lost 
none of their influence, but they have in addition the power of the 
constituency, and the men of our mountain republic who are chival- 
rous enough to do the women justice are chiv^alrous enough still to 
keep them enthroned by their sides. 

RESULT OF EQUAL SUFFRAGE IN COLORADO. 

I have lived in Colorado for 31 years and have taken an active part 
in public affairs during practically all of that time. I personally know 
the condition of politics before and since woman suffrage was granted ; 
and while my judgment may not coincide with some others, I cer- 
tainly have no reason for making any erroneous statements or 
expressing other than my candid judgment, and I can honestly and 
conscientiously say that I do not know of any bad effects whatever 
that woman suffrage has had in the State of Colorado, and I do know 
of enough good that they have accomplished to fill many volumes. 

At the time it was adopted in Colorado people both feared and 
expected too much as a result of woman suffrage. In fact, the enthu- 
siasts for every reform hope for more than they realize, while the oppo- 
nents always fear the worst possible results. Woman suffrage has 
not brought about the millennium. It has not entirely changed 
human nature nor abolished dishonesty or crime. But, in the lan- 
guage of Colorado's grand old man. Senator Henry M. Teller — 

Woman suffrage has resulted in nothing that is objectionable and in much that is 
advantageous. 

I believe I could prepare a list of at least a thousand beneficial 
results of equal suffrage in Colorado and an equal number of reasons 
why women should vote. I will not at all attem])t to enimierate 
them, but in addition to those I have already mentioned will merely 
give in a very general and possibly somewhat disconnected way some 
of the I'csults as I see them. 

Equal suffrage has unquestionably C()mi)olled a very great improve- 
ment in the standing and moral character of the candidates nominated 
for office by all political parties. 



EQUAL SUFFRAGE IN" COLOEADO. 33 

It has equally improved the political conventions, assemblies, and 
public meetings and the management of all the different political 
campaigns previous to elections. 

It has made much more orderly and better polling places and 
election-day customs have wonderfully improved. 

It has greatly improved the interest of both men and women in the 
public affairs of the State and the municipalities. 

It educates and broadens a woman's sphere of information, and 
makes her take a more intelligent interest m public affairs. It makes 
her more companionable, and consequently increases her intellectual 
standing, dignity, and influence. 

It is a family bond and tie that binds the husband and wife together. 

In ninety-nine cases out of one hundred the best and often the 
only political adviser a Colorado politician has is his wife. Any 
reasonable fair-minded person who has ever lived in Colorado six 
months knows that our women count for a great deal more, there is 
more attention paid to their wishes, and much greater weight given 
to their opinions and judgment than there is or ever was in any State 
where they are denied the power that equal suffrage gives them. 

Some one has said that in our political conventions a few women 
are as good as a whole squad of police. Our women are well advised; 
their judgment is good. Their opinions are entitled to and nearly 
always receive due respect. It is true that more or less political 
chicanery always has, and probably always will, exist among some 
politicians in the State, not because of, but in spite of woman suffrage. 
Just the same as crime exists, not because of criminal laws, but in 
spite of them. 

At this fall's election there will be nearly a million women who wiU 
vote for the next President of the United States, and their influence 
will determine which way will be cast the 37 electoral votes in the 
States of Colorado, California, Washington, Idaho, Utah, and Wy- 
oming. 

IT HAS TAKEN OUR SCHOOLS OUT OF POLITICS. __^ 

Equal suffrage has almost entirely taken our schools out of politics. 
One of our prominent educators recently said that there is more 
politics in school matters in any one block of any large city in this 
country than there is in the entire 104,000 square miles of Colorado 
soil. 

The ballot is the woman's peaceable, orderly, and dignified asser- 
tion and effective execution of her judgment and wiU. All the old 
shopworn arguments against woman suffrage that I used to hear from 
my grandparents when I was a boy seem so ridiculous nowadays that 
they are a ludicrous curiosity to us people in Colorado. But those 
relics of feudalism seem to be still current back here in the East, in 
keeping up the ancient bugaboo against the best, the most intelligent, 
and most patriotic women on this planet asserting the God-given 
right of every human being of self-protection. And when the undis- 
putable facts of many years of actual practical tests conclusively and 
overwhelmingly demonstrates the unqualified falsity of all those 
antiquated absurdities — demonstrate that they have become delib- 
erate slanderers on the women of this country — our opponents are 

S. Doc. 722, 62-2 3 



34 EQUAL SUFFEAGE IN COLORADO. 

now in desperation resorting to all kinds of misrepresentation as to 
the facts in our Western States. And what provokes us is that these 
slanderers very often, to use a slang expression, ''get away" with 
their outrageous assertions because, at a distance of from two to 
three thousand miles away, with no one to contradict them, their 
positive statements are partially accepted. 

While the 150 good laws enacted through the efforts of our women 
speak many volumes of public records in their behalf, yet it is in the 
local city, towoi, and county politics that women exert the most 
direct influence. The nearer the home the greater the good; such is 
apparently the philosophy of her interest. Municipal government and 
school government at home are her special forte, and it would take 
many more volumes to enumerate the beneficial results of her moral 
and humane influence in municipal and educational affairs throughout 
the State. 

The composite judgment of all the governors of the six equal- 
suffrage States is that women are more conscientious about the right 
of suffrage than men are. Women are much more careful about 
advising themselves concerning the personnel of the ticket than the 
men are; and she is fully capable of so marking her ticket as to express 
her individual choice, and that choice is always for the uplift of poli- 
tics. No one need ever fear to trust to the women the welfare and 
good of the community, because their influence invariably tends 
toward the betterment of our moral, political, and civic environments. 
Equal suffrage has accomplished all that anyone could reasonably ex- 
pect, and much more. 

Women everywhere being confessedly the most moral, the most 
sober portion of the American people, it is inconceivable to us how 
anyone can dread their influeiice in public life. 

I believe the securing of universal franchise for the women of this 
country would be the greatest step in advancement that civilization 
has made in centuries. There never has been a good law enacted in 
the State of Colorado in the past 19 years that the women have not 
actively worked for. 

The women of Colorado are more in favor of law and order and 
social morality than men. The women on the various boards have 
brought about many beneficial reforms in our State institutions. No 
honest man need ever have any fear of the results of woman suft'rage. 
Every crook may well fear it, because self-preservation is the first law 
of nature. With us, woman suffrage has long since ceased to be an 
experiment in any sense. It is well tried, thoroughly approved, and 
a permanent principle of our Government. The woman vote is a 
great and never-failing foundation or background of moral support. 
Some one has said it is in their dynamic vital force for good that 
woman suffrage has made its greatest c'ontribution to the public w:el- 
fare. The good effect of the infranchisement and the intelligent and 
public spirit of the women of Colorado is one of the greatest gains to 
the State and to themselves. Citizens, both men and women, mth 
intelligence, public spirit, and morality that can withstand public 
temptations are what are most needed for the welfare of a community. 
Women are much more interested in public afl'airs than they used to 
be before they obtained the franchise, and our })oliticians now deal 
more earnestly with home and social questions. There is no place in 



EQUAL SUFFRAGE IN COLORADO. 35 

the world where the women vote where they have suffered the shght- 
est loss, either of dignity or domesticity. 

Equal suffrage safeguards the home by scientific laws; but woman's 
influence has not only been felt in passing good laws, but very forcibly 
in the prevention of the passage of bad laws and in preventing the 
repeal or injurious amendment of many good laws. All women do 
not join in this work. In fact, a majority do not; but a large number 
do, and no large number of men, either organized or not, do join in 
such work. Individually, many men help. 

Woman suffrage simply applies to the political sphere that principle 
of government that secures the best results in the domestic sphere, the 
mutual cooperation of men and women for the individual and general 
welfare. It is in the line of the general elevation of the race; it rep- 
resents a higher civilization; it increases the power of those things that 
make for righteousness. 

The proof of the pudding is in the eating. Women by the hundreds 
of thousands are voting in Colorado, Wyoming, Utah, Idaho, Wash- 
ington, California, New Zealand, Australia, Finland, and Norway. 
Women have municipal suffrage throughout England, Scotland, Ire- 
land, and many of the English colonies, and I believe she now has 
practically full equal rights in Sweden, Iceland, and Denmark. In 
some of these countries the women have been voting for generations; 
and in all of those countries and States put together the opponents of 
woman suffrage have never thus far been able to find anything detri- 
mental to the cause of woman suffrage or even find a corporal's guard 
of reputable men who would publicly say that it had produced any 
bad results. On the other hand, thousands of the most prominent and 
best men in all of those States and countries have repeatedly testified 
unqualifiedly to the good results of woman suffrage. 

I will attempt, without giving the literal quotations, to give a 
synopsis of what hundreds of men and women have said in public 
speeches or put on record in addresses or articles in various magazines. 
They assert, in substance, that as a result of equal suffrage fewer 
politicians and more good citizens are elected to office; that women 
are the best citizens and can not be corrupted; that there is no brib- 
ery, and no corruption of women's votes at any election; that no 
campaign orator in a stump speech ever dares to tell a story that is 
not clean; that no candidate dares cater to the immoral-woman vote; 
that no party dares nominate a candidate of known bad morals; and 
that every party in determining and selecting its candidates is com- 
pelled to, and does, select men against the character of whom the 
women can say nothing. They unite in saying that woman suffrage 
purifies the body politic; that the moral, educational, and humane 
legislation desired by women can be secured more easily if the women 
vote; that the ballot leads to fair treatment of women in public serv- 
ice; that it is the quickest, easiest, and most dignified and least con-" 
spicuous way of influencing public affairs; that the ballot is a great 
educator, and that the women become more practical and more wise 
by using it; that instead of women's influence being lessened by the 
ballot, it is greatly increased; that in States where women vote there 
is far better enforcement of the laws which protect working girls; 
that they have never known an instance where the use of the ballot 
has caused a woman to lose her womanliness or neglect her home or 
her family; that there is no just cause or basis for political inequality 



36 EQUAL SUFFRAGE IN COLORADO. 

between men and women; and that, tested by actual experience, 
equal suffrage means better laws, better candidates, better govern- 
ment, and consequently a better society. 
Gov. John F. Shafroth, of Colorado, says: 

Women's presence in politics has introduced an independent element which com- 
pels better nominations. It has been a great success in Colorado. Women will always 
be found upon the moral side of every question. It can not be that our mothers, 
sisters, and wives would have anything but an elevating influence on government. 

Gov. Joseph M. Carey, of Wyoming, has issued a public statement 
within the last 30 days, in which he says: 

Woman [in Wyoming] exercises her right to vote and hold office as a matter of course. 
I am satisfied that women's influence in political matters has been good. I know it 
has been a great advantage to women, as girls in schools and in young wom.anhood 
make preparations to hold positions of responsibility in civil as well as in official life. 
Not 2 per cent of the voters would deprive woman of her rights in this State. Within 
the last few years I have been more strongly imipressed that it is right that women 
should vote and hold office because of the fact that many women have come into very 
important and responsible positions. 

Ex-Gov. Hunt, of Idaho, says : 

The woman vote has compelled not only State conventions, but, more particularly, 
county conventions of both parties to select the cleanest and best material for public 
office. 

Judge Ben Lindsey, of Denver, says : 

One of the greatest advantages of woman suffrage is the fear on the part of the machine 
politician to name men of immoral character. While many bad men have been 
elected in spite of woman suffrage, they have not been elected because of woman 
suffrage. If the women alone had a vote, it would result in a class of men in public 
oflice whose character for morality, honesty, and courage would be of a much higher 
order. 

He further says : 

We have in Colorado the most advanced laws of any State in the Union for the care 
and protection of the home and the children. These laws, in my opinion, would not 
exist at this time if it were not for the powerful influence of woman suffrage. 

He also states that the juvenile court in the city of Denver would 
not be in existence, and that even if it was, he would not be its judge 
if it had not been for the woman vote. Both party organizations 
were against him. 

It is universally conceded among all those who are in a position to 
know tliat equal suffrage has raised new standards of public service, 
of political morality, and of official honesty. 

Before the franchise was granted, women's property rights in Colo- 
rado had all been fairly well secured, and since that time the last 
discrimination has been removed; so that with respect to property 
women are on a basis of perfect equality with men. 

The splendid record of equal suffrage in Colorado for nearly 20 
years is not only utterly ignored by the antisuffragists, but is brazenly 
denied. Defiantly disregarding all facts and figures, prejudiced 
scribblers have rushed roughshod over honor, honesty, and ciecency 
in a desperate effort to secure sometliing for their muckraking maga- 
zines that could be distorted into a sliowing or pretense that equal 
suffrage has proven a failure in Colorado. Only the people of the 
State can fully appreciate tlie infamous extremes to wliich irre- 
sponsible falsity ana scurrility have been carried by venal writei*s and 
speakers. The facts from which the true value of equal sufl'rage can 



EQUAL SUFFRAGE IN COLOEADO. 37 

be argued with mathematical certainty are easily obtainable. The 
ordinary honest man is not vicious in his opposition to equal suffrage. 
Some writer has said that with him it is more a matter of sex antag- 
onism, or a survival of the feudal instinct. While there are undoubt- 
edly many reputable men in Colorado and also quite a number of good 
women who are still opposed to woman suffrage, certainly no man 
or woman would ever dare advance the so-called arguments that are 
in vogue in the East. Everyone in our State knows that the Colorado 
women have grown in strength and efficiency without the loss of the 
essential womanliness or sacrifice of any valuable traits. 

SAMPLE ''arguments'^ AGAINST EQUAL SUFFRAGE. 

An opponent quoted a newspaper interview with a former United 
States district judge in Colorado, published a good many years ago, 
in which he is reported as saying, ''If it w^ere to be done over again, 
the people of Colorado would defeat woman suffrage by an over- 
whelming majority." Woman suffrage was originally granted in 
Colorado merely by an act of the legislature, and ratified by a refer- 
endum vote, in the fall of 1893. This was done under a peculiar 
clause of the State constitution, which allowed the ballot to be 
extended to women in that way. For eight years woman suffrage 
existed only as a statute, not as a part of the constitution. Since that 
judge expressed the opinion that the people of Colorado would repeal 
it if they could, Colorado has, in 1901, amended the part of her con- 
stitution relating to the qualifications of electors, and formally struck 
out the word ''male'' and incorporated woman suffrage into the 
constitution itself by a majority three times as large as it received 
when first submitted and adopted in 1893. There have been a few 
ladies in the State who on certain occasions have expressed their 
disapproval of woman suffrage. Everyone has a perfect right to 
express his or her opinions, and I am not going to criticize them. 

I make no reference to them, but will call attention to a trait of 
human nature. We have all noticed small children, especially some 
of them who are raised with a silver spoon, humored too much, and 
are badly spoiled and headstrong, who, if they can not ahvays have 
things all their own way, will not play. Everybody can not be 
elected or even nominated to office, and everybody can not dictate 
who shall be nominated or what officials shall do after the}^ are 
elected. 

Women, especially during the past few years, since they have be- 
come thoroughly well qualified, use their judgment very discrimi- 
nately and wisely in the selection of candidates. The result is that 
the women's vote has been the means of defeating a great many men 
and some women who had political aspirations in our State; and 
while many defeated candidates and thwarted politicians have been 
good losers, some of them have not. And after every convention 
and every campaign there are a few people who are thoroughly con- 
vinced that woman suffrage is an ignominious failure, and the way 
they conclusively prove it is by admitting it in the eastern papers. 
Of course that may be convincing to some people, but it hardly is to 
thinking people. And yet any disgruntled politician or disappointed 
candidate or w^oman w^hose pride has been piqued can give out a 
statement and it will be eagerly seized upon by the opposition press 



^8 EQUAL, SUFFRAGE IN COLORADO. 

of the whole United States and heralded from one end of the country 
to the other. The only surprising thing to me about it is that in 19 
years the antisuffragists never seem to have but twice been able to 
get any statements of that kind, which was done a few years ago and 
published in a rabid antisuffragist periodical and are being repeated 
ever since and put in the hearings again, here, now. 

Some thoughtless or malicious individuals have asserted that the 
ballot has had a bad moral effect on women. If this were true, the 
ministers would certainly be likely to have found it out. In 1910 
Mrs. Julia Ward Howe addressed a circular letter of inquiry to aU 
the Episcopal clergymen, and to all the Methodist, Baptist, Congre- 
gational, and Presbyterian ministers in Colorado, Wyoming, Utah, 
and Idaho; also to Sunday school superintendents and to editors. 
She asked whether the effects of equal suffrage were good or bad. 
The results of her investigation were tabulated and published in the 
Woman's Journal of October 15, 1910. The replies of the Episcopal 
clergymen were in favor more than 2 to 1 ; of Baptist ministers, 7 
to 1 ; of the Congregational ministers, about 8 to 1 ; of the Methodist 
ministers, more than 10 to 1 ; and of the Presbyterian ministers, more 
than 11 to 1. The answers from the editors were in favor 8 to 1. In 
all, 624 replies were received, of which 62 were opposed, 46 in doubt, 
and 516 in favor. These figures speak for themselves. 

It is a maxim in war and politics, and we sometimes follow it in 
the House of Representatives, namely, learn what your adversary 
wants and then do the other thing. Every vicious interest in the 
country would a thousand times rather continue to contend with 
women's ''indirect influence" than try to cope with women's votes. 

A fellow that is no good can usually inveigle some good girl into 
marrying him, but he can not fool the entire female population, and 
when he runs for office they will quickly size him up and, in the 
language of the street, hand him what is coming to him. 

PRODUCES BETTER NOMINATIONS. 

Women always inquire about the character of candidates. Every- 
one knows that neither party loyalty nor any other influence can pre- 
vent the great majority of women from scratching their tickets for 
good nominees as against bad ones. The result is, there is not a 
State in the Union where the moral character of all the nominees of 
all leading parties and their standing as good citizens in the com- 
munity is any higher, if it is as high, as it is in Colorado. It makes 
no difference how much electioneering there may be done in behalf 
of the party nominees, when a woman goes into the booth and puUs 
the curtain behind her and is left alone w^th the baUot containing 50 
to 75 names, she remembers having goi>e over a sample of that ballot 
before she went in there, and she knows the men she is going to 
scratch and those she is going to vote for. And while she usually 
begins by writing the party name at the top of the baUot, the same 
as her husband woidd do, she does not stop there. She goes down 
the line with her pen, and when she stops she has voted what she 
belives is a good, clean tickc^t. I think one of the greatest benefits 
that has come to Colorado, and will un.questionably come to any 
State, as the result of woman siifl'rage is the fact that is universally 
recogn.ized, and which no honest man who knows what he is talking 



EQUAL SUFFRAGE IN COLOEADO. 39 

about will deny, that woman suffrage has brought about a better 
class of nominations for all offices. They are always specially con- 
cerned about local offices. They always know, or Imow of, the 
candidates and vote with the greatest discrimination on county and 
city offices. The two parties being so nearly evenly divided in Colo- 
rado, it makes it imperatively necessary for both parties to nominate 
the best men they can possibly select in order to secure their election. 

During a campaign in Colorado the women always quietly try to 
learn the character of the nominees on each ticket. The questions 
uppermost in their minds about a candidate are, Is he a good man ? 
Is he good to his family? A^Hiat are the influences behind him, and 
what are his business associates and moral surroundings ? What 
kind of an official will he make ? 

Political meetings in Colorado are nearly as largely attended by 
women as by men. Considering their opportunity to go to meetings, 
the attendance of women is larger in proportion than the men. My 
wife is not only the best but in fact the only political adviser I ever 
had; and every successful public official in Colorado, if he told the 
truth, would make this same confession. 

Hon. Robert W. Speer, mayor of Denver, says: 

Woman suffrage has been an important factor for morality and better government 
in this State. 

One hundred mayors of the cities and towns of Colorado and the gov- 
ernor and nearly all the State officials issued a public statement some 
time ago in which they officially asserted most positively that woman 
suffrage has placed better men in office than under the old masculine 
rule; that a man must now possess a good moral character to gain a 
position within the gift of the people; that anyone who wants good 
government ought to be in favor of woman suffrage; and that our 
women take as much interest in elections as the men and exercise 
their right of citizenship with equal if not better intelligence than the 
men. As a good mother purifies the home, so her influence purifies 
society and politics. 

Women are instinctively and invariably opposed to all evils that 
threaten the home or the Nation. Women's public life is under a 
microscope. The occasional faults or foibles of some of them are 
eagerly seized upon and exaggerated by adverse critics as fair exam- 
ples of the character and conduct of the entire sex. A few feather- 
headed and erratic individuals may be found everywhere and in both 
sexes. But common sense will ultimately prevail, and these biased 
and wanton criticisms will pass and the place thereof will know 
them no more forever. 

COLORADO IS SATISFIED WITH EQUAL SUFFRAGE. 

Light usually comes from the east, but in this case it is coming 
from the west. The logic of a progressive civilization leads inevit- 
ably to equal suffrage. Any assertion that equal suffrage does not 
work well where it has been tried is either based upon inexcusable 
ignorance or actual dishonesty. A proposition to revoke the right 
of equal suffrage in our State would be overwhelmingly defeated by 
the men themselves. I believe at least 85 or 90 per cent of the men 
and fully 95 per cent of the women would vote against it. In fact, 



40 EQUAL SUFFRAGE IN COLORADO. 

there is no talk of repealing it. There is no discussion about the 
matter in that way, except from other States, We accept universal 
suffrage in Colorado as final. We think no more about women voting 
than we do about bald-headed men voting. The}^ are both intelli- 
gent human beings and good citizens. We would no more think of 
attempting to deprive the women of the right to vote than we would 
of surrendering our State charter and reverting to Territorial days. 
The principle of the equal rights of women is irrevocably determined. 
Woman suffrage will not make a human paradise of society in a day, 
or in 20 years. But it will and has helped marvelously to make 
human society more human and make of this country a true dem- 
ocracy, which is neither a class government nor a sex government, 
but a government of all the people, for all the people, and b}^ all the 
people. 

EQUAL SUFFRAGE IS SOON COMING IN EVERY CIVILIZED NATION. 

It is the great question of the age. The world is loath to accept 
new ideas. Custom has always been a tyrant on the minds of men. 
Reforms have always been viewed with suspicion. A stubborn atti- 
tude of resistance to change may be classed almost with the instincts of 
the race. Some one has said that there has never been a new doctrine 
promulgated in all history that has not met with bitter resistance, 
and that it is a safe o;eneral proposition tliat any conduct widely at 
variance with an established custom will first be regarded as immoral, 
immodest, or at least unbecoming. These characteristics of the race 
constitute one of the basic reasons for the hostile attitude of society 
on the question of woman suffrage. It is custom and not reason that 
women have always had to face in their fight for the ballot. vSneers 
and misrepresentations will temporarily even overcome the com- 
mand, ''Do unto others as you would have others do unto you." 
But the greatest intellects of the human race have from the begin- 
ning of civilization to the present time acknowledged tliat naturally 
women are intellectually our equal and morally our superior, and that 
they are entitled to all the rights that men enjoy. It has been the 
partisan, the prejudice, the bias, and smaller minds that have always 
desperately opposed any advance of womanhood. I sometimes 
wonder if some of these individuals do not harbor a shrinking con- 
sciousness of not being equal to compete with or willing to face the 
result of fair treatment to women. I can not resist having a linger- 
ing susf)icion that tire actions of some men are a tacit confession of 
fear of the risk to which it would subject their imagined superiority. 
Practically every broad-gauged statesman of the world has denied 
that any portion of the human species has a right to prescribe to any 
other portion its sphere, its education, or its rights. The sphere of 
every man and woman is that sphere which he or she can pro])erly 
fill. The enfranchisement of women is a constructive measure. It 
is the next logical st(^p in the political evolution of this country. No 
opportunity shoidd ever in our country be closed to any jiuman 
being wlio has the ca])acity to work therein. It is a disgrace to this 
country and to this enligiitened century to longer disfranchise the 
patriotic and intelligent womanhood of this Ke])ublic. There never 
was a tini(^ in the history of the world when the mass of women was so 
intelligent, so right living and i)ul)li(' s])irite{l. Jane Addams and 



EQUAL SUFFRAGE IN COLORADO. 41 

Mrs. Hr.rriet Taylor Utpon and thousands of othor noble women, 
who have for nearly a life time been worldn^: in this splendid fight 
for womanhood and humanity, are entitled to the encouragement 
of our commendation and active support. I glory in the fact that 
they have enough zeal and patriotism to trample under foot the 
sneers of some of the members of both sexes and to carry on their 
magnificent work to victory. The world has never enfranchised as 
patriotic a class of people as the American women are to-day. 
Patriotism is not confined to the male sex. Let us be big enough, 
broad-minded enough, humane enou2:h, and honest enough to treat 
the women of our country as fairly as they are being treated in China. 
Let us be men enough to give the women a square deal. Let us 
show to the world that we believe in the Declaration of Independence. 
Let us evolve our male oligarchy into a twentieth-century democracy. 

ANTIQUATED OBJECTIONS. 

In referring to the arguments of the opposition to equal riglits in 
this country, an eloquent Senator once said: 

We find only the same ancient footprints, the same things that satisfied men thou- 
sands of years ago and which never did satisfy any woman that we know. 

Wendell Phillips, in October, 1851, in his eloquent and celebrated 
lecture, answered all of the arguments against women suffrage that I 
have ever heard of, and time has conclusivelv corroborated the cor- 
rectness of what he said. 

All the old objections have been swept into oblivion by modern 
experiences, and people who repeat them are mostly inexcusably 
ignorant or merely obstinate. Specious objections, slurs, and 
coarse laughter are no longer arguments. But unfortunately in 
no society has life ever been completely controlled by reason, but 
mainly by instinct, habits, and customs growing out of it. The 
race has suffered much through the tyranny of prejudice. The 
human family has been burdened during all the ages by common 
prejudice and much ignorance. Many people do not keep pace 
with the movement of the world about them. 

St. Paul's command that women be in subjection, keep silent, 
and learn wisdom from their husbands has long since lost its author- 
ity. The old assertion that women should not vote because they 
have not as much brains as the men was accepted as a conclusive 
argument for some time after the stone age, but people do not waste 
much time considering it now. In fact, the human race has devel- 
oped too much at the present time to countenance dilettante specu- 
lation and nice theories about women's sphere and the female intel- 
lect and the duties of wife and mother, which are contrary to every- 
day common sense. 

It is probably a waste of time to argue against prejudices that 
are unreasonable and can not be reasoned down. Some people 
will harbor their biased and prejudiced notions until they cross the 
great divide. The woman's success in all the fields in which she 
has been allowed to enter constitute a solid phalanx of thousands of 
indisputable facts, which demonstrate her capacity and merit, and 
we must appeal to the reasoning and thinking people to determine 
this question. 



42 EQUAL SUFFRAGE IN COLORADO. 

Some one has said in substance that theories are thin and unsub- 
stantial air against the soHd facts of women minghng with honor and 
profit in the various professions and industrial pursuits of life. 

When I think of the 7,000,000 wage-earning women and girls 
in this countr}^, I often wish I had the time to write a volume on 
equal suffrage. I would entitle it ''Seven million reasons for the 
enfranchisement of women. '^ In view of my actual experience and 
personal knowledge of the effect of woman suffrage, I have never 
yet seen or heard an argument against woman suffrage that had in 
it what seemed to me any justice or common sense. To us men of 
Colorado people's prejudice against the woman's vote is incom- 
prehensible. But when we think of it, we realize that it is due par- 
tially to lack of information of the evolution, the actual scheme of 
civilized life, and to the changed conditions of the present day, 
and also to a more or less inherited masculine repugnance to women 
having any public capacity or recognition whatever. While in one 
sense that sentiment of men may be called chivalrous, yet, in 
another sense it is extremely selfish. It is not chivalrous nor even 
honest to be willing to permit a woman forever to do exactly the 
same labor as a man and only receive from one-third to one-half of 
the pay for it. 

Did you ever stop to think that none of the an tisuffr agists have 
ever come out to the States where we have equal suffrage and endeav- 
ored to show our women and men the error of their way ? There is a 
very good reason why they never do. The archeean objections and 
medieval arguments that they are still using in other parts of the 
country have been so conclusively discredited and shown by our 
actual experience to be ridiculous, that no one in our country would 
listen to them for a moment. We do not mean to be discourteous 
to anyone. 

Everyone has a right to his or her own opmion, but when objec- 
tions are diametrically opposed to what we know are the facts and 
are everyday common experiences we can not resist looking upon 
people who shut their eyes to these conditions as either lacking 
candor or as being mental relics of former generations. In future 
years we will look back and marvel at the supreme effrontery of the 
male population arrogating to themselves all the wisdom, honesty, 
and patriotism for so many generations after generations. Pos- 
terity will be amazed when it reads the history of the many centu- 
ries that women were disfranchised. 

THE POWER OF THE BALLOT. 

Samuel Gompers, president of the American Federation of Labor, 
says: 

I am for unqualified woman suffrage as a matter of human justice. 

Jane Addams says that Iier strongest reason for wishing women to 
vote is because slie has seen and deplored the unfortunate effect upon 
the character of women of the indirect method of ))ersuasion and 
cajolery which their present voteless condition compels them to use 
in their rarely successful endeavor to secure the legislation of whicli 
they and their children are so sorely in need. For their own sake 
women must vote. 



EQUAL SUFFRAGE IN COLOEADO. 43 

Ex-Gov. Charles S. Thomas, of Colorado, says: 

To the bread-winning portion of the female sex the ballot is a boon. She is a 
factor whose power must be respected. Like her brother, she must be reckoned 
with at the polls. Hence it is her buckler against industrial wrongs, her protection 
against the constant tendency to reduce her wages because of helplessness. If no 
other reason existed for conferring this right upon womankind, this, to the man of 
justice, should be all sufficient. Whoever accepts the doctrine of the Declaration 
of Independence must believe in the right of woman to vote. 

Without quoting further extracts I will give a brief symposium of 
a collection of articles by various writers and a synopsis of many 
speeches that accord mth my judgment and experience upon this 
subject. 

Our Government is controlled by politicians and politicians are con- 
trolled by the ballot. Wldle indirect influence has accomplished a 
great deal, nevertheless we know that it is a wholly inadequate sub- 
stitute for the actual power of the ballot. Legislators and public 
officials everywhere give very httle heed to any demands that are not 
backed by the ballot. When the women are enfranchised, they not 
only have a voice in the making of the laws, but they are in a posi- 
tion to enforce them. They can make or unmake the officials who 
refuse to perform their duty. We in Colorado know that it is simply 
absurd to assert that women who vote can not get what they wish 
much more easier and in a far more dignified way than the women 
who do not vote. We know that '' virtual representation" is a delu- 
sion — it does not exist. We know that the ballot is the right pro- 
tective of all rights. 

We all remember that about a year ago an Itahan woman, Angehno 
Napoletino, was sentenced to be hung in Canada for having killed her 
husband after much brutal treatment from him, including an attempt 
to compel her to become a white slave. Owing to the aroused public 
sentiment throughout the United States and Canada her sentence was 
finally commuted to imprisonment for life. 

In Leadville, Colo., within the past year, a woman was arrested for 
identically the same crime and under almost exactly the same cir- 
cumstances. She was poor, ignorant, and friendless. In her cell she 
wondered to herself whether the autliorities would hang her then or 
wait until her babe was born. When her case was called in court, the 
district attorney arose and said: '^The public sentiment of Colorado 
will not condone me in prosecuting a woman under such circum- 
stances;" and she went free. W^e have capital punishment in Col- 
orado, only applicable, however, to the most heinous cases. But the 
conscience of the State would not permit the hanging or even the 
imprisonment of a woman for killing her husband in defending her 
own life and honor. 

The first right the first woman on this earth started to secure was 
the right to know, and she has been working for thousands of years 
for the right to learn and work, and she is now seeking the right to 
control her own property, her own mind, and her own welfare. Her 
long years of struggle for equal rights is now culminating in a world- 
wide demand for equal suffrage for w^omen, because there are no rights, 
either natural, social, or individual, that can be permanently main- 
tained either politically or in the courts at law save by the possession 
of political rights. 



44 EQUAL SUFFRAGE IN COLORADO. 

The good women of Massachusetts, in 1902, after earnestly working 
for 55 years, succeeded in getting a law making mothers equally with 
the fathers the guardians of their minor children. The women of 
Colorado passed that bill in less than 55 days after the convening of 
the first legislature after they were given the right of franchise. 
After a half century of earnest effort by ''indirect influence," only 15 
out of the 48 States have granted that right to the mothers. In 33 
States a father is the sole legal guardian and can to-day give away his 
children — in some States even an unborn babe — and the motlier is 
helpless. 

The good women of Illinois appealed to their legislature for nine 
successive years before they succeeded in securing a State industrial 
school for girls. Senate bill No. 1 in the first legislature that met in 
Colorado after the enfranchisement of women provided for the estab- 
lishment of a home for dependent children. The women shot that 
bill through the legislature, the home was built, and in less than six 
months the State was mothering her motherless children. 

Women are not only learning what their natural legal rights are, 
but they are learning that the only way to secure them is by the 
proper, frank, and direct way, not by trying to influence somebody 
else. 

They are learning that citizenship is a pearl of great price, and, like 
other pearls, it must be worn and come in contact with human lives if 
it retains its luster. 

COLORADO IS THE TOP OF THE W^ORLD. 

Colorado is the bright jewel set in the crest of this continent, where she shines as 
the Kohinoor of all the gems of this Union. 

The Centennial State is a beacon light to all her sisters. We are 
supremely proud of the advancement that we have made, and we are 
frank in according to our women their just and full share in its accom- 
plishment. 

The voting women of the ]\fountain States have, with splendid 
patriotism to the country and with a loyalty to their sex that is 
worthy of the highest commendation, throughout this land pledged 
themselves never to cease working for the adoption of woman suffrage 
until every woman, from sea to sea and from the Gulf to Canada, 
enjoys the blessings of political equality in the same degree tliat they 
do. They refuse to be content with their own freedom so long as 
their sisters are in bondag(\ They look forward confidently to the 
day when all women ''shall be enthroned upon justice and equal 
opportunity and shall taste the fruits of that genuine fraternity 
which gives to all humanity the power of self ex])ression." 

Tliere is no fouiuhition, in fact, whatever for the assertion that 
womcni can not com])el the enforcement of the laws. No trouble of 
this kind has resulted from equal suflVagc^ in practice. The laws are 
fully as well enforc(Ml in the (Mifrancliised States as in adjoining States 
where women lia\-e no ^'ote. Where wonuMi ha^e \\\c full hallot they 
haA'e often (Icfcnled had candidates foi- liiuluM- oflices, hut no riotous 
u|)i'ising lias c\'er followed. In fact, the suggestion that a law which 
was suj)|)orte(l by a luajoiily of tlu^ wonuMi and duly (MiaetcMl would 
not be enforced is a lilxd on American manhood. 



EQUAL, SUFrEAGE IN COLOEADO. 45 

The International Congress on Child Welfare and the National 
Congress of Mothers meet here every year. Those noble women are 
doing a splendid philanthropic and humanitarian work for the proper 
care and civic uplift of our youth. But just think what a power for 
good to our race all those good ladies w^ould be if they had the right 
of citizenship. Their work would be 100 times as efhcient. If they 
and their sisters could vote, you can stake your life on the proposition 
that the politicians from Maine to California would sit up and take 
notice. We would have at least one woman juvenile court judge in 
every large city. They would have a mothers' compensation law 
and thousands of other reforms that would be for the betterment of 
the race. They would get their laws enacted by Congress and by 
every State in this Union, and they would get them now, not after 
most of these noble women have gone with a discouraged heart to 
their final reward. 

In spite of politicians and political machines, organized bodies of 
women are constantly securing measures for the alleviation of wrongs 
and for the bettering of social conditions. Women have just as 
much at stake in the Government as men have, and they share 
equally in the benefits of a good and suffer equally the evil conse- 
quence of bad government. They feel as never before their responsi- 
bility concerning sanitation of cities, conditions of streets, schools, 
labor, wages, charities, reforms, and ever}^ question which relates to 
the welfare of the people; and they realize as never before how 
powerless they are without the ballot. 

The right to vote commands recognition from all political parties 
and representatives, which nonvoters never receive. 

We will never obtain our highest ideals of citizenship until free 
men and free women work together for the establishment of the 
highest human justice. 

EQUAL SUFFRAGE PROTECTS LABORING WOMEN. -^ 

The status of women in this country has been and is now passing 
through a marvelous transformation. It is only a few years since it 
would have been looked upon as almost disreputable for a woman 
to work in a store or as a clerk in an office. That situation has 
entirely changed. If our social conditions could be perfectly ideal; 
if every girl when she reaches the age of discretion could be happily 
married to some man who would support her as he should and prop- 
erly care for the family, the question of woman suffrage would be of 
much less concern. But to-day one-fifth of all the women of this 
country are compelled to earn their own living by their daily labor. 
Nearly 7,000,000 women are wage earners to-day, and the number 
is constantly increasing. Woman suffrage is not responsible for 
bringing about that condition. It is the economic change that is 
going on in the life of this Republic. If the right to vote was taken 
away from the laboring men of this country to-morrow, they w^ould 
within one year, and in many places mthin one week, be reduced to 
a condition of practical slavery; and it is little less than inhuman to 
compel the 7,000,000 women to work in this country under conditions 
that would be absolutely intolerable for men. I look upon this as a 
matter of common humanity. No class of human beings can com- 



46 EQUAL SUFFRAGE IN COLORADO. 

pel or will ever secure fair treatment either in the courts or any other 
place unless that class is given the power of the ballot. If the right 
of franchise is as important almost as life and death to men, why is 
it not equally important to women? If the laboring man's vote can 
enforce fair treatment, labor legislation, and decent rules, at least 
comparatively so, why would not it produce the same effect in the 
hands of women ? It certainly appears to me that every fair-minded 
man in this country, every man who is in favor of a square deal and 
of fair treatment to his fellow man, and especially to the womanhood 
of the country, ought to heartily join in giving the women this right. 
If any of them do not want to exercise it, they need not do so. They 
are like children who do not want to go to school. They usually 
grow up to appreciate the importance of it, and these good ladies wdll 
reach that stage some day. There will be enough of them who do 
need the ballot and will honestly exercise it to creditably represent 
all of them. 

Ever}^ adult who is not an idiot or a criminal is entitled to represen- 
tation in his own government affairs. 

Woman suffrage is a necessit}?-, both from a political and economical 
standpoint. A nation can not long exist that tolerates conditions 
that discourage marriage and prevent the possibility of motherhood. 

The low pay and hard conditions of working women are largely due 
to their disfranchisement. With the ballot the women who do ex- 
actly the same work as the men wJl enforce the same pay. She can 
not possibly protect her interests as a wage earner without the ballot. 
I appeal for the 7,000,000 working women of this country. I can not 
resist feeling that it is a crime against humanity to deprive them of 
the right to protect themselves, which they can only do by the ballot. 
She is forced to compete in the labor market with those who have full 
political rights, while she herself is a political nonentit}^. Extend 
the horizon of her life and the protection of her piu'ity and the con- 
servation of her virtue and her motherhood. All that the ballot is to 
man it is and will be that and even more to women. Work should be 
paid for not accorchng to the sex of the worker, but on the merits of 
the work. Where a woman is equally well equipped to do a certain kind 
of work, and does do it equally as well, she is entitled to the same rate 
of pay as a man. But she does not get it, because she can not com- 
pel it. 

Women claim the ballot as their inherent right, and they use it in 
the line of their duty as good citizens for the enforcement of the laws 
and the ])rotection of society. Frances Willard once said that the 
best thing in the nineteenth century was woman's discovery of her- 
self. One of the best things thus far in the twentieth century is 
woman's discovery of her duty to help others. 

It is not a logical or any reason to refuse tlu^ franchise to all women 
because some Avomen do not recognize the duty of voting. The 
women who so nuich need the right to vote do not desire to compel 
their sisters to vote. If tlie good ladies who op])ose woman suffrage 
do not (lesii-(» to perfoi'in the (hity they oW(^ to socic^ty of expr(^ssing 
t h('ii- opinion by niniking n ballot, th(^y wvcd not do so. I^nl I deny 
th.'it they h.MNc any right to try to prevent their sistcM's from s(M'nring 
the I'ight to pi'otcct t h(Mns(»lv(»s nnd perform their obhgMtions to 
hinnanit \'. 



EQUAL SUFFEAGE IN COLORADO. 47 

The most important subject, in fact, the greatest problem, before 
humanity to-day is — 

THE CONSERVATION OF THE HUMAN RACE. 

The conservation of motherhood and childhood. Where married 
women are forced to work in factories the birth rate decreases and the 
death rate of children increases alarmingly. Many kinds of work as 
now performed by women is injurious, and the demand for more pro- 
tective legislation for women workers is constantly increasing. The 
handicap against woman is too great for her to bear. Woman is now 
compelled to work under conditions that ruin her nervous system, 
undermine her strength, and unfit her for the duties of marriage and 
motherhood. The result is it discourages marriages, which is unques- 
tionably an alarming evil. Women are compelled to undercut 
wages. 

No man is free unless he has the fullest rights of citizenship, inde- 
pendent of all limitations. The right to vote is the highest test of 
liberty. 

If men were superhuman, the interests of women might be suffi- 
ciently represented by men, and the horrors of the sweatshops would 
be largely if not entirely removed. 

The late Hon. Carroll D. Wright, while still National Commissioner 
of Labor, said: 

The lack of direct political influence constitutes a powerful reason why women's 
wages have been kept at a minimum. 

Thousands of women are to-day working at starvation wages, 
and the conditions of women's work are getting steadily worse 
instead of better as the number of women workers increases. Any- 
one who will study the recent investigations of women's work and 
wages will painfully realize that working women, even in the United 
States, where there are fewer women and more favorable conditions 
for women workers than anywhere else in the world, except Australia, 
need all the help the ballot will give them. In fact, women, even 
more than men, need the ballot to protect their special interests and 
right to earn a living. 

The experience of all history goes to prove that a disfranchised 
class can not protect its liberty. It is not a theory, but a condition 
that confronts us. These millions of women must be permitted 
to earn their living in an honorable way. To my mind one of the 
strongest reasons for granting women the right of suffrage is the 
irhperative necessity of her having that power to protect herself in 
the conditions under which she must work. The need of work 
is so great and the number of women that must be self-supporting 
is so large that the employers have been at liberty to dictate their 
own terms to the workers without regard to whether the wage offered 
is a living wage. If it is right that we should regulate child labor 
it is equally right that we should regulate the conditions surrounding 
women in industry. 

While I have never given the subject any extended study, yet 
my impression is that there ought to be established in this country 
a minimum wage commission to consider this subject. They have 
provisions of that kind in other countries and they have apparently 
worked with great success. It would seem as though the soul of 



48 EQUAL SUFFRAGE IN COLORADO. 

an^'fair-inindcHl person would be moved to see the virtue of unhappy 
women exposed to the terrible kind of modern commercial life and 
subjected by hopeless provcrty to the hearltess demands of vice. 
With the l)allot the economic conchtion of women will advance and 
the chance to live clean and happy lives will be greatly improved. 
The grantiiiii: of th(^ l)allot to women is along the line of higher develop- 
menl of our humanity. To-da}' women are now engaged in 300 
different kinds of industries. To me that is — 

THREE HUNDRED GOOD REASONS FOR EQUAL SUFFRAGE. 

1 am not willing to longer sacrifice the wtue and health of the 
girlhood of this country upon the alter of a groundless prejudice. 
Women are ground down by the competition of their sisters to the 
very point of starvation. To my mind, the political enfrancliisement 
of women is absolutely essential to the economic independence of 
the working classes, and it has become the world-wide issue of imme- 
diate and vital importance to the very existence of democracy. 

The wage-earning woman or girl of to-day has absolutely no chance 
beside her brother, simply because she is not a recognized citizen 
by virtue of the ballot. I coincide with the humane belief that it 
is brutal and inhuman to force a woman to compete with those who 
have full political rights while she herself is a political nonentity. 
All workingmen and all men of every class regard the ballot as their 
greatest protection against the oppr'ession and injustice of other men. 
It is only necessary to ask ourselves what w^ould be the fate of any 
political party whose platform contained a plank depriving laboring 
men of the right to vote. No woman on this earth can be engaged 
in a higher or nobler or more humane work than in making an earnest 
and persistent fight for the right of her weaker and less fortunate 
sisters, who, through poverty and oppression and incessant toil, have 
no power to fight for themselves. It has always seemed to me to be 
a strange trait of human nature that anyone should strive so hard 
to prevent others from acquiring rights which they so much need, 
because, forsooth, he does not need them. Because 1 am well fed and 
well clothed is no reason why I should try to prevent others from 
enjoying the same. 

ADDITIONAL '' ARGUMENTS" AGAINST EQUAL SUFFRAGE. 

I oi)s(Mve tliat one of the ladies who acts as the ofiicial represen- 
tative of an organization opj^osed to woman suffrage has just pre- 
sented an argument to the Judiciary Committee against my pending 
conslit nlional amcMuhnent for equal sufi'rage. I will only refer as 
a sample to (»ne of th(^ grounds of o])jections which she presents, 
viz: 

IW'caiiK' the Miffraj^o is not a (lucslioii of a rij;!!!. or ol justice', hut of policy aud ex- 
jx'diency; and if Ihore is no question of riu:ht or justice, (here is no cause for woman 

HUffniL'C. 

I Iijh! >-ii|)|)(»sc(1 lliat jx'oplt" had ('(^iscmI to dis])ul(* — 

I 111: AHsri:\( r kiciit or f,qi\\t. suffrage. 

Naluial jnslicc is all on the si(h> of wonuMi. If all jx^ople shouhl 
take nait in gctvcrnmcnt : if women uvc \)oo\)\v: if mankind are and 
"f light (Might to heficc niid (Mpi.ih in ihe sense that they are equally 



EQUAL SUFFRAGE IN COLOEADO. 49 

''entitled to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness;" if all human 
beings are equally entitled to protection before the law; if, as Lincoln 
said, ''No man is good enough to govern another mthout that other 
man's consent;" if '^ taxation mthout representation is tyranny;" 
if our Government is founded upon the doctrine of ''equal rights to 
all and special privileges to none;" in other words, if we believe in 
the principles enunciated in the Declaration of Independence, 
surely we can not admit that any class of human beings has a right to 
the exclusive usurpation of these powers and rights, or that these 
universal principles of eternal right can be justly denied to any in- 
telhgent human being merely on account of sex. 

President Lincoln also said that "This Nation can not exist half 
slave and half free." In a repubhc the ballot is the citizen's right, 
and in the L^nited States women are arbitrarily deprived of this right, 
I look upon the recognition of women as citizens as being an act of 
simple justice; and I can not appreciate either the logic, common 
sense, or honesty of refusing to grant an act of simple justice to women 
merely because they are women. The present civilization will not 
much longer permit the physically stronger half of the human race 
to ignore the plain rights of the physically weaker half. The reasons 
why women should vote are the same as why men should vote, the 
same as the reasons for having a repubhc rather than a monarchy. 
A noted speaker has eloquently said that we can not play fast and 
loose with the eternal principles of justice ^\ithout being sooner or 
later caught in the net of our own weaving. Women are one-half of 
the human race. Why should they be born, educated, married, di- 
vorced, and buried under laws made exclusively by men? Why 
should laws regulating women's labor, women's taxation, women's 
guardianship of their o^\ti children, women's power of will, be enacted 
without the consultation of women ? Why should women and their 
children eat impure food, drink poisoned water, catch diseases, and 
live under immoral and degrading conditions over which they have no 
control ? 

The natural right of a woman to vote is just as clear as that of a 
man and rests upon exactly the same ground. The woman's rights 
movement is a feminist evolution. Women should vote because 
they are women. To have a voice in choosing those by whom one 
is governed, is a means of self-protection due to everyone. Democ- 
racy is not a matter .>f sex any more than it is a matter of race. 
The disfranchisement of women is a brutal usurpation of power, a 
rehc of primitive barbarity when might made right, which has be- 
come unworthy of a chivalrous modern manhood. 

Another assertion made by the opponents is a denial that — 

WOMEN WANT EQUAL SUFFRAGE. 

At the time we submitted the question of equal suffrage in Colorado 
there were a great many women — ^in fact, a large per cent of the 
women — who were indifferent. The large number of newspapers and 
men who have been engaged for a hah century in ridiculing, cartoon- 
ing, and slurring the advocates of woman suffrage has necessarily had 
an important effect upon opinions of many women. But, notwith- 
standing the terrific power of ridicule and the effect of a great many 

S. Doc. 722, 62-2 i 



60 EQUAL SUFFEAGE IN COLORADO. 

so-called arguments and objections that we in Colorado know are 
absolutely ridiculous, the cause of woman suffrage is making the most 
marvelous progress of any reform movement in this Nation. It has 
made more progress throughout this country during the past 5 years 
than it made in the 50 years preceding that, in the general awakening 
of the country to the justice, and in fact the necessity, of giving the 
women of this country the right to participate in the making and 
enforcing of our laws and in determining who their public officials 
shall be. As intelligent and thinking human beings, as an equal half 
of this human race, with the same patriotic desires for good govern- 
ment, with really more at stake and a greater interest in the welfare 
of society than the male half of humanity has, it is inconceivable to 
me and utterly illogical and contrary to nature to assume that the 
women are unwilhng to be granted the permission, if they desire to 
exercise it, of having a voice in the civic affairs of our common coun- 
try- 

The best and most conclusive answer is that in every State where 

women have been given the ballot they actually do vote at every gen- 
eral election in as large a proportion to their numbers as the men. 
That ought to be sufficient answer, no matter what they may have 
thought before the right was acknowledged. Equal suffrage can no 
more be prevented from extending to every State in this Union than 
you can stop the progress of humanity or prevent the ultimate survival 
of the principles of right and justice. 

Ordinarily the Hght comes from the East, but in the matter of the 
enfranchisement of the best half of humanit}^, I am proud to say, the 
light is coming from the West. Eastward the woman's star of empire 
takes its way! 

There is no more possibility of the right of equal suffrage being taken 
from the women of Colorado or any other State that has tried it than 
there is of returning to Negro slavery in this country. One is just 
exactly as likely as the other. The human race is not going backward. 
No member of our legislature could ever even get a bill printed, much 
less considered, that would attempt to take this right away from the 
women, and any assertions to the contrary are utterly and totally 
without foundation. 

MORMON INFLUENCE IN COLORADO. 

About the most infamous misrepresentation that I have seen in the 
press and heard, and which is being heralded broadcast and reiterated 
all over three-fourths of the United States as an argument against 
equal suffrage, is the statement that the Mormons hold the balance of 
power and control the politics of Colorado. 

I venture the assertion that there is not one individual out of the 
800,000 population of Colorado who is old enough to know anything 
but what will brand that statement as a malicious falsehood. 

I have understood that there is one small settlement in south- 
western Colorado that is composed princi])ally of Mormons. They 
are good citizens and do not take any interest whatever that I ever 
heard of in the politics of the State, or even in that county. Of course 
there may be a few Mormons scattered over the State, but actually I 
am not aware that I am personally acquainted with a Mormon in the 



EQUAL SUFFEAGE IN COLOKADO. 51 

State, and my home county joins the State of Utah, and I have known 
the people of western Colorado for 30 years, and as well probably as 
any other man. I have never in my life heard, until I came East, that 
there was any such thing as a Mormon vote in Colorado, or that they 
cut any figure whatever in politics. I only mention it to show the 
absurdity and utterly unwarranted viciousness of this attack against 
woman suffrage by appealing to the public resentment and hostility 
against polygamy. In the State of Utah the Mormons are and always 
have been in an overwhelming majority. They control the politics, 
not by reason of equal suffrage — that nas nothing to do with it — but 
because they are in the majority. The chances are that if an over- 
whelming majority of the people of any State were Methodists, or 
Christian Scientists, or Catholic, or Baptist, or any other particular 
denomination or nationality that that denomination or nationality 
having an undisputed majority of all the votes would naturally control 
the politics and the offices. 

But it is outrageous to try to invoke the public enmity against 
polygamy as an argument against equal suffrage. If there is any- 
thing under heaven that would prevent polygamy from spreading, it 
would be the granting of equal suffrage. No denomination or 
nationality or individual class ever has or ever will dominate the 
politics of Colorado. 

WOMEN AND PKOHIBITION. ^--^ 

It seems to me that the opponents of equal suffrage are anything 
but fair in their statements concerning the relation of women voting 
to the liquor question. In the cities where there are large liquor 
interests our opponents warn the moderate drinkers, and incidentally 
the people interested in the liquor business, that woman suffrage 
means prohibition. On the other hand, wherever the prohibition 
sentiment is strong, they loudly proclaim that none of the equal- 
suffrage States have adopted prohibition or abolished the saloons, 
and that the liquor interests flourish in those States the same as 
before the adoption of woman suffrage. Half truths are always the 
worst kind of deceptions. 

In considering the condition of any people or State or city, one 
must look to their surrounding circumstances and local conditions. 
Colorado is popularly known as '^the summer playground of the 
Nation.^' It is one of the greatest resort places in the world and is 
becoming more and more of a tourist-resort State every year. Owing 
to the cool nights and delightful summer climate, hundreds of thou- 
sands of people from all over the world come here every year, and 
especially in the summer time. A very large per cent of them are 
people who are in the habit of using liquor in moderate quantities, 
and while the liquor trade is only a comparatively small item, yet the 
revenue derived from the tourist's business every year is an enormous 
sum. In fact, Colorado's scenery and climate is one of our chief 
assets and will be worth billions of dollars to her in the future. Those 
tourists expect to be able to use liquor in a moderate way, the same 
as they do in every resort place throughout the world. I think that 
is one reason why the public sentiment of the State does not favor 
absolute prohibition in Colorado, and possibly it may not do so for 
many years to come. But when we consider the conditions in Colo- 



62 EQUAL SUFFEAGE IX COLORADO. 

rado now and what they were before equal smTrage was adopted w^e 
have an opportunity of seeing the very great beneficial eiTect of the 
ballot in the hands of the women. At the time woman suffrage 
was adopted, as I recall it, there were only three towns in the State 
that prohibited the sale of liquor, and there was practically no other 
dry territory in the State. Saloons generally were open all night 
and Sundays, and gambling of every kind was wide open, not in 
every place, but quite generally throughout the State, and there was 
comparatively little restriction upon the sportmg fraternity. 

Colorado's population has always been liberal in their view^s, and 
the result was that the public sentiment and the conditions that the 
women had to cope with were a great deal diiTerent from what they 
are in the older States. But they have secured the passage of a good 
local-option law, and the public sentiment of the State to-day approves 
of it. Under the operation of that law some 10 or 12 counties are 
now entirely dry; about 50 of the cities and towns are dry, and prac- 
tically all the residence portions of all the cities and towns throughout 
the State are dry. There is no open and very little private gambling. 
The saloons are closed on Sunday and at 12 o'clock at night. We 
have high license and strict legislation, and the conduct and man- 
agement of the saloons are orderly. In fact, the great majority of 
the saloon people themselves are earnest in their efforts to comply 
with the law. 

Of course, there is more or less contention between the saloon and 
antisaloon sentiments. But no one can justly criticize woman 
suffrage because it has not made Colorado a prohibition State. The 
women are entitled to most of the credit for bringing about this moral 
and business-like regulation and reduction of the liquor traffic in our 
State. They have been greatly assisted by a large number of good 
men and also by the Anti-Saloon League of Colorado. 

While I have no definite statistics on the subject, I believe the 
saloon-license records will show that in proportion to the population 
there are not one-third as many saloons in the State to-day as there 
were 20 years ago. 

So that whether they have satisfied the an tisuffr agists and eastern 
prohibitionists or not, the women of Colorado have, under the con- 
ditions existing in our State, made a magnificent record in the cause 
of temperance and orderly conduct during the time they have had 
the ballot. 

Women will not tolerate disorderly dives or disreputable joints 
that debauch minors or women; nevertheless, they mean to be just 
and are disposed to heed the general public sentiment and treat all 
law-abiding c tizens fairly. 

The antisuffrago people criticize Colorado for not passing laws to 
cover conditions that never obtained in our State. 

There are some other reckless statements made and published 
broadcast concerning Coloi-ado that I would like to answer, if time 
and space permittcnl. There are also some wanton slanders that 
are unworth}^ of consideration. While I would like to characterize 
them as they deserve, the fact is that the people who make these 
derogatory statements about Colorado, or about the effect of equal 
suffrage, are nine hundred and ninety-nine out of a thousand people 
who never spent a w^eek in the State and know nothing about it. 
And I simply ask everyone to incpiiie of peo])le who make statements 



EQUAL. SUFFRAGE IN COLORADO. 53 

contrary to what I have said as to their length of residence in our 
State and their occupation, and I am wilhng to submit to all fair- 
minded people whether the statements of 95 per cent of the inhabitants 
of our State and an equally large per cent of all those who have ever 
spent any time in Colorado are to be brushed aside by the assertions 
of a few slanderers whose opinions are based upon hearsay and 
prejudice. 

THE woman's motto IS '' ONWARD." 

The women of Colorado will continue to vote. The women of the 
world will continue to advance. The man or woman who tries to stop 
them will be justly relegated to oblivion. You politicians had better 
remember those three statements, because you will have occasion to 
reflect upon them. This is an age of individual liberty, and the male 
sex is not humanity, but only half of it. 

There will be no backward movement in the fight for equal rights. 
Not one foot of ground that has been gained will ever be surrendered. 
And the people who try to make a little temporary notoriety by an 
attack on the sex are doomed in the end to disappointment, defeat, 
and ignominious humiliation. The continued disfranchisement of 
women is a relic of antiquity that belongs to other days. Purblind 
politicians and people who cling to prejudice in spite of facts as plain 
as the noonday sun may keep on fighting and misrepresenting the 
good women of the suffrage States, but they are coming to be as 
absurd as old Canute when he placed his throne on the beach and 
commanded the waves to recede. 

The women of this Nation have little by little been taking more 
interest in public affairs, been reading more and becoming more 
intelligent and better posted, and each day is assisting a little more 
than the day before in solving the great problems that are to-day 
affecting the world. To say that she is going to take a backward step 
is to brand one's self as an imbecile. The 150 good laws that have 
placed upon the statute books of Colorado during the past 18 years 
are a living proof which no one can question that some mighty moral 
force has held the pen that has written those laws into the history of 
our State, and that hand is the woman's hand. To attempt to deny 
that would be the same as denying that Colorado has progressed since 
her admission into the Union. 

In every civilized country on the globe the women are fighting for 
their rights. They are gradually winning everywhere. The day is 
soon coming when they will take the place belonging to them — ; 
squarely beside the men in the settlement of all public matters. It 
is a great moral reform. 

There will never be any surrender of any of the rights she has 
secured. There will be no retreat sounded. Their slogan is '^For- 
ward, march." And the whole world will rejoice and be benefited 
when they achieve their ultimate victor . 

It will be adopted first throughout the West within 5 years; in 
the North within 10 years; in the East within 15 years; and lastly 
in the South within 20 years. 

There will be a few progressive States that will get ahead of my 
schedule and a few reactionary ones that will fall behind. But, gen- 



54 



EQUAL SUFFRAGE IN COLORADO. 



erally speaking, that is the order in which equal suffrage is inevitably 
coming throughout this country. 

For the purpose of accurately showing the progress that the prin- 
ciples of equal rights is making all over the civilized world, i will 
extend my remarks by inserting a statement which has been carefully 
prepared by that indefatigable defender of equal rights, AHce Stone 
blackwell : 

GAINS IN EQUAL SUFFRAGE, 

Eighty years ago women could not vote anywhere, except to a very limited extent 
in Sweden, and in few other places in the Old World. 



Time. 




Kind of sviffrage. 



1838 
1850 
1861 
1867 
1869 



1871 
1875 

1876 

1877 
1878 

1879 
1880 



1881 

1883 
1884 

1886 

1887 



1888 



1889 

1891 
1893 



1894 



1895 
1896 

1898 



1900 
1901 

1902 

1903 

1905 
1906 



Kentucky 

Ontario 

Kansas 

New South Wales. . . 

England 

Victoria 

Wyoming. 

West Australia 

Michigan 

Minnesota 

Colorado 

New Zealand 

New Hampshire 

Oregon 

Massachusetts 

New York 

Vermont 

South Australia 

Scotland 

Isle of Man 

Nebraska 

Ontario 

Tasmania 

New Zealand 

New Brunswick 

Kansas 

Nova Scotia 

Manitoba 

North Dakota 

South Dakota 

Montana 

Arizona 

New Jersey 

Montana 

England 

British Columbia . . . 
Northwest Territory 

Scotland 

Province of Quebec . 

Illiaois 

Connecticut 

Colorado 

New Zealand 

Ohio 

Iowa 

England 

South Australia 

Utah 

Idaho 

Ireland 

Minnesota 

Delaware 

France 

Louisiana 

Wisconsin 

West Australia 

New York 

Norway 

Australia 

New South Wales. . 

Kansas 

Tasmania 

Queensland 

Finland 



School suffrage to widows with children of school age. 

School suffrage, women married and single. 

School suffrage. 

Municipal suffrage. 

Municipal suffrage, single women and widows. 

Municipal suffrage^ married and single women. 

Full suffrage. 

Municipal suffrage. 

School suffrage. 

Do. 

Do. 

Do. 

Do. 

Do. 

Do. 

Do. 

Do. 
Municipal suffrage. 

Mvmicipal suffrage to the single women and widows. 
Parliamentary suffrage. 
School suffrage. 
Municipal suffrage. 

Do. 

Do. 

Do. 

Do. 

Do. 

Do. 
School suffrage. 

Do. 

Do. 

Do. 

Do. 
Tax-paying suffrage. 
County suffrage. 
Municipal suffrage. 

Do. 
County suffrage. 

Municipal suffrage, single women and widows. 
School suft'rage. 

Do. 
Full suffrage. 

Do. 
School suffrage. 
Bond suffrage. 

Parish and district suffrage, married and single women. 
Full State suffrage. 
Full suffrage. 

Do. 
All offices excepLmembers of Parliament. 
Library trustees. 

Schoolsuffrage to tax-paying women. 
Women engaged in comrnerce can vote forjudges of the tribunal 

of commerce. 
Tax-paying suffrage. 
School suffrage. 
Full State suffrage. 
Tax-paying suffrage; local taxation in all towns aad villages of 

the State. 
Municipal suffrage. 
Full suffrage. 
Full State suffrage. 
Bond suffrage. 
Full State suffrage. 

Do. 
Full suffrage; eligible to all olTices. 



EQUAL SUFFRAGE IN COLORADO. 



55 



Time. 



Place. 



Kind of suffrage. 



1907 



1908 



1909 



1910 



1911 



Norway 

Sweden 

Denmark 

England 

Oklahoma 

Michigan 

Denmark 

Victoria 

Belgium 

Province of Voralberg (Austrian 
Tyrol). 

Ginter Park, Va 

Washington 

New Mexico 

Norway 

Bosnia 

Diet of the Crown Prince of 
KJrain (Austria). 

India (Gaekwar of Baroda) 

Wurtemberg, Kingdom of 

New York 

California 

Honduras 

Iceland 



Full Parliamentary suffrage to the 300,000 women who already 

had municipal suffrage. 
Eligible to municipal offices. 
Can vote for members of boards of public charities, and serve on 

such boards. 
Eligible as mayors, aldermen, and county and town councilors. 
New State continued school suffrage for women. 
Taxpayers to vote on questions of Icoal taxation and granting 

of franchises. 
Women who are taxpayers or wives of taxpayers, a vote for all 

officers except members of Parliament. 
Full State suffrage. 
Can vote for members of the counseUs des prudhommes, and also 

eligible. 
Single women and widows paying taxes were given a vote. 

Tax-paying women, a vote on all municipal questions. 

Full suffrage. 

School suffrage. 

Municipal suffrage made universal. (Three-fifths of the women 

had it before.) 
Parliamentary vote to women owning a certain amount of real 

estate. 
Suffrage to the women of its capital city, Laibach. 

Women of his dominions vote in mimicipal elections. 

Women engaged in agriculture vote for members of the chamber 

of agriculture; also eligible. 
Women in all towns, villages, and third-class cities vote on bond-- 

ing propositions. 
Full suffrage. 

Municipal suffrage in capital city, Belize. 
Parliamentary suffrage for women over 25 years. 



O 



